Breaking Limits: Tenacity
by MRAY 4TW
Summary: Everyone is born with Limits but Naruto is born with the capability to easily surpass them...the very same that bars us all from achieving our true potential. He'll herald a new genesis of strength and vigor, despite the threat of the most powerful menace yet to be reckoned with. Naruto/harem (Naruto - Hinata, Fem. Haku, Tenten, Fu.) Smart and Strong Naruto. Unique Bloodline.
1. Chapter 1

**Breaking limits**

 **Hello y'all, the name's MRAY 4TW with his very own fanfic. I gotta say, this is my first and may be my most ambitious work. Regular updates? Sure. You'll get updates inside the month; it's just that they will probably be sporadic. I have every idea planned for this story so writer's block shouldn't be a problem. If you are reading this now, that means that the whole story has, or is currently being 'tidied.' Also, I should mention that the story doesn't start with an epic explosion. Its starts a bit...slow, but it was following the story plan at the time. No, not quite. The whole story is a _really slow burn._ Just bear with it, okay? Anyway, enjoy and don't forget to review.**

" **Kyuubi and summons speaking"**

"Normal speaking"

'Thinking'

 **TIMESKIP**

' _Document'_

 _Italics can be used for certain kinds of emphasis or snide comments._

 **Bold can be used for forceful yelling/shouting/screaming.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

 **1\. (Prologue)**

His clones had dispersed, relinquishing their memories to him that made him aware that they had performed their duties. One had completed writing a letter to his son, one had informed the old man his last wishes, and another carried a baby to his work office, and left a note in a picture frame.

He looked down at his chest and sighed with a shuddering breath.

A massive claw had pierced his wife's chest along with his own in their last ditch effort to protect their son. As his life was fleeting he started to think back to only five hours before. If you had asked him then how he was going to spend the night, the very last answer from the darkest recesses from his mind would be dying.

He looked to his red-headed wife and her to him simultaneously in the eyes. Cerulean ones looked back into obsidian ones as they leaned towards each other, albeit painfully, to share one last emotion filled kiss. Under normal circumstances there was nothing special about it but in this case it was the most poignant they had ever shared. The emotions ranged from happiness to sorrow; from anxiety to depression. They both shared the same thoughts as they finally ended.

'I love Minato/Kushina and thank Kami that I won't have to bury her/him. But we won't get to see our son grow…'

Darkness started to swim around the edges of their vision and their breathing slowed and became shallow. Their bodies finally gave out as they exhaled one last time as death claimed them.

Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, two of the finest shinobi of the village hidden of the leaves had died, sacrificing themselves to restrain and seal the Kyuubi no kitsune (nine tailed fox) a monstrous beast of staggering size and want of destruction. Kushina had held the beast in place with her chakra chains while Minato used a forbidden jutsu to seal the fox demon away in a newborn baby, only born a couple of hours prior.

His own son.

Although this was a decision filled with regret, he knew he had no choice because he couldn't ask anyone else's child to bear such a burden. He knew how hard jinchuurikis (power of human sacrifice) lived but he was sure he could overcome it. So he sealed the yin part of the demon's chakra in himself, and the yang portion in his son, confident he could overcome the beast's hate and be a strong shinobi in the future for the village.

 **ONE HOUR POST DEATH**

An old man sat in a large office with a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes slept in a small basket on the desk in front of him. As he sat in his own chair, he looked on at the sleeping infant and couldn't help but feel envious at being able to sleep just one hour after the end of one of the worst disasters to ever befall Konoha. The responsibility of having to look after a half destroyed village, didn't mean half as much work. Oh no. It meant five times the work and ten times the stress.

The man was dressed in simple red robes being overlaid with white ones along with his badge of office, a dominantly red kite shaped hat with a white diamond patch at the forefront with the words "Fire Shadow" written in red kanji. His face being the only exposed area of his outfit showed a tanned, wrinkled face that had a few liver spots complimented by a grey goatee and crow's feet around his eyes. However, it seemed that he had gained a few more wrinkles to add to his ever-growing collection.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was tired. No, scratch that. He was burnt-out. Everyone had a load of shit on their plate but he seemed to have the biggest portion by far. He gave a weary sigh as he thought over his problems while he looked at the peaceful infant.

'The village is practically destroyed due to the Kyuubi attack, we don't have much funding to fully rebuild, not to mention the loss of valuable lives of shinobi and civilian alike. Ugh. And there is that council meeting tomorrow and I have to step back in to take control of all of this. And to top it off Minato-kun and Kushina-chan are dead. They were the most this village had to offer to intimidate the other villages so they don't restart another war. Plus the fact that their fame helped to bring in clients that kept this village afloat with funding.'

For one who was dubbed by the monikers "The God of Shinobi," and "The Professor," he didn't know what to do.

"I'm getting too old for this shit," he sighed.

Suddenly there was a sharp knock at the door.

"Oh great. Just what I needed. A distraction," he muttered. "Come in," he said.

The door opened to reveal one of his Anbu captains. He was characterized by gravity defying grey hair, a mask that may have been a part of his shirt that extended from behind his flak vest to the bridge of his nose. The description was complete with a leaf hitai-ate that covered his left eye. People could only wonder what Kakashi Hatake got off by hiding at least 75% of his face.

"Ahh, Kakashi-san, what can I do for you," Sarutobi welcomed. "Is it true that sensei has died, Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked, getting straight to the point. Hiruzen frowned at the forward question. "Unfortunately, yes."

He pointed at the baby in the basket. "And this child… his son?"

Hiruzen's face fell even more, if that much was possible. He didn't know how Kakashi came to know so quickly. Perhaps all those who knew or could come to that conclusion could be counted. (Kakashi and he included of course.)

"Yes."

The copy ninja sighed as he silently grieved. He knew as much, having been charged by Minato- sensei himself to guard his wife Kushina while she was in the early stages of her pregnancy till two weeks short of the end of it. While he knew that he (Minato) died in sacrifice to save the village would not want anyone to cry for him, he couldn't help but shed a few tears from his exposed eye.

"So what are you going to do, Hokage-sama?"

"I'm pondering what to say and what NOT to say to that damned council."

"Frankly, that's the easy part."

"Excuse me?" the hokage looked at him in shock.

"Everything except his heritage. After all, we can't handle any threats by any villages that have Minato-sensei's enemies affiliated with them.."

"Especially Iwagakure…" they both stated with uncanny simultaneous effect.

They both stared at each other for well over a minute.

"Then what about the-"

"Minato-sensei told us that he wanted him to be seen as a hero."

"How did you-"

"I was beside you when he told you. "

Hiruzen started to fervently hope he wasn't going senile. Perhaps it was due to the stress of the situation. Yes. That's it.

"You know, you should take this hat." Hiruzen stated.

"Meh, don't feel like it."

They both started to chuckle, but they stopped when they heard a giggle. They looked around but then they heard it again coming from the basket. As they looked at the baby inhabitant who was giggling as it clutched a cheap looking necklace that the copy-cat ninja recognized as Kushina's. The necklace was merely a string running through a small wooden necklace with the words Uzu one side and a red and white swirl on the other.

The child giggled again and the previously crestfallen hokage couldn't help but smile. He couldn't help but think that things might get better after all.

 **And done. (It's a bit of a prologue. I'm sure the only** _ **one thing**_ **I changed you already saw. How did I do, huh. Tell me please. As you know, first time and all but I don't mind flames so long as you tell me what I'm doing wrong or if I made any mistakes (spelling, translation, grammar, etc).**

 **Sorry this chapter was so short but I'll try and make them at least 2000 words long in the future. Also, you would notice that I try and use honorary suffixes in Japanese but monikers in English. I'll do jutsus in Japanese with translations in English immediately following it in brackets. But the monikers will be English. Its kind of a pain to constantly looking up Google translate and narutopaedia and narutowiki.**

 **(EDIT) Tip: Pay attention to what I write. I did it for a reason, so all details are relevant. Also, this fic has been likened to a bottle of wine by someone I know. Apparently, I needed time to develop and fully mature. So basically, if you can get past the early chapters of me feeling my way through my first fanfic, you might be able to get drunk later on. Just saying.**

 **Sayonara.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm back!** **Got a new chappie for y'all for Breaking limits! You're welcome.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

 **2.**

The Third leaf shadow sighed as he stepped into the meeting chamber. It was going to be a long day. Looks like he was wrong.

Not that it started out peachy anyway.

The council men and women of the shinobi and civilian factions had all gathered. Well. All those who had survived the previous night anyway. Maybe, just maybe, this meeting would easier on his ears. But all hopes fled when he saw a patch of pink hair peeking from behind a council-man's head. Sarutobi could only think that a beast in great want of destruction missed certain people who would NOT be missed; least of all himself.

Sarutobi took his seat and waited patiently for everyone to settle. (Or stalled before his migraine began. It depends on who you asked.) Finally coming to a more or less agreeable degree of silence, Hiruzen called for a complete version of it, in a less than agreeable fashion. But it was more persuasive.

"Quiet!" he bellowed, leaking just enough killing intent to scare the muttering civilians and ninja alike.

"Now that we are settled, what's first on the agenda?"

Peace was once again forfeit in the chaotic shouts, each person trying to speak louder than the other except for the clan heads who calmly raised their hands.

"Hiashi-san?" Hiruzen acknowledged.

"What of the Kyuubi? We all know that the Fourth went to intercept it but after a short period of time it disappeared. We wish to know what had transpired," the Hyuuga said.

Let it be known that it was easier to read a book in an unlit room at night than trying to read a member of the Hyuuga clan's expression. They were exceptionally stoic, only on par with the Aburame clan.

The Sandaime gazed at the expressionless Hiashi and gave a sigh. Everyone leaned closer, as if a few inches increased their hearing capabilities. The hokage began to speak.

"As you all know, the Bijuu (tailed beasts) are beings that cannot be harmed without massive effort from the offender. Also, even if they are "killed," they would reform in a few years due to the fact that they are merely beings comprised of nothing but chakra. So instead," Sarutobi beckoned to a maid holding something wrapped in a lilac coloured blanket (be it color or colour, curb or kerb, a fair amount of words are spelt differently be it western or eastern hemisphere, or different territories. My country, Jamaica, falls under England's English rules. Huh. God save the Queen and all that… Hey! Are the rest of us mere mortals not deserving blessings or something? Jeez. T_T )

"He couldn't take the risk of it attacking again in a few years so he did the best next thing." By now the maid had now reached his side and Sarutobi took the bundle from her as people strained to see what was inside the blanket.

"He sacrificed sealed it away in a newborn using the **Shiki fuin, (Reaper Death Seal)** a kinjutsu (forbidden technique) which demands your soul in forfeit. He forged the strongest seal ever created with the Shinigami's help in the hopes that you all would see the child as a hero for having to live with this burden; Konahagakure no Sato, (Village hidden in the Leaves)" Hiruzen proclaimed, lifting the child. "She was saved by her youngest son!"

There was an ungodly amount of silence for a minute. On everyone's faces there was the unmistakable look of realization. Hiruzen, for a moment had thought he had broken through to them. But his hopes were dashed when he heard what was shouted next.

They had come to "realize" that the boy was a 'demon in disguise.'

It was to be expected. They were ignorant of the powers of fuinjutsu (sealing technique). After all, how does one imprison a demon the size of a damn mountain inside a boy? But he had hopes of the shinobi faction.

"Kill the Demon!"

"What the hell?!"

"The damn beast is still alive?"

"Kill it now Lord Third!"

"My family died to that beast and the Fourth left it alive?"

Those were just a few of those of the civilian faction. All of them were in hysterics. Fuinjutsu was a strange art yes, but weren't the powers of all ninja strange to the civilians? Granted, at first it did sound farfetched for paper with ink scribbles to explode, but so was breathing fire, calling creatures from other realms, pulling bones from your body to fight with and seeing through walls?

Albeit the shinobi present have to be able to suppress personal emotions. Not completely, but to a tolerable amount. Also, all of them had to various degrees in knowledge of the sealing arts and that it had virtually unlimited potential. But it was hard to grasp that it was still alive. It was like a man came to kill you, another man saved you, and you were told that the offender were killed at the expense of your savior's life, only to find out the next day that the man who tried to kill you moved in with your neighbor next door.

So yes. They also called for its death, although they were trying to use logic in their speech.

"We should kill it now Lord Third!"

"The Fourth sacrificed his life to make the Kyuubi vulnerable! After all, what is weaker than a baby?"

"With all due respect hokage-sama, the child must be killed to destroy this threat."

And so it went. On one hand, they were more respectful of his authority. Not to mention more considerate to his hearing. But on the other hand, the message was still the same.

The third was saddened. To think that no one would recognize this child for who he is. That is, a hero. But then again heroes were seldom loved in their own country. After all, look at Pakura of the Shakuton (scorch release), the Hokage thought.

An Anbu quietly and slowly reached for his tanto. To anyone who would be watching, they would assume that he was prepared to act as crowd control, in case anyone decided to become physically offensive. His right hand finally completed its thirty second journey to its destination and gripped the handle of his weapon akin to a hungry predator on its prey that refused to let go... He then reached for his cyanide and nightshade pill and held it in between his molars. He then focused a miniscule amount of chakra that could hardly be sensed into his thirty second delay A-grade explosive tag and started to ponder.

 **FLASHBACK**

"I am so excited! Soon we can be together free from tradition!" Shiarta exclaimed.

Kudarne eyed his fiancée with a critical eye. While he loved her to death , to the point of elope with her, this was a whole new level of vivaciousness unseen till now. She was all over the place, writing this, trying on this, putting on that, going here and there mad with preparations. He was passionately in love with her and her with him. He was sure that after marriage he would quit anbu, and slow down. Go on missions only once in a while and doing mostly routine village patrols. This way he could start a family in peace.

 **FLASHBACK END**

As tears stated to fall freely from Kudarne's masked face to the ground, he realized that the day he yearned for, that being the twelve of October was no longer real. No longer within his reach.

20 seconds.

He thought of the corpse of his fiancée he had seen half-buried under the rubble of their would-be shared home, the place they would have raised their family. Even so, in that tragic moment, he had to leave to fight her murderer, who had moved on to destroy another area of the village. But he had failed. He couldn't even get close to the monster. It had all been for nought.

'No,' he firmly thought. It wasn't that it wasn't within reach. For him, there was no tomorrow.

'Shiarta, my love, I shall avenge you. When I have completed this task, I shall join you. I promise…'

17…16…15…

He leapt forward at the hokage, who was currently holding the child in his arms.

…14…

The hokage was caught unawares but his reflexes saved him and the baby as he withdrew a kunai from under his robes, but quickly parried the tanto with the kunai in a reverse grip.

…13…

The god of shinobi focused chakra into the blade and cut the tanto in two and the offending anbu leapt back from the hokage, sliding back in a prepared running man stance already starting to charge at Sarutobi once more.

…12…

The other anbu watching the fight were surprised at first but got over it as they hurled multiple kunai and shuriken at the offender that struck and embedded themselves in his flesh particularly his heart, lungs and stomach.

…11…

His sprint slowed to a run, then to limp, then to a pained crawl still moving towards the old man holding the bane of his existence. The killer of the love of his life.

…10…

Halfway there.

…9…

His final position was settling into a prostrate form in front of the Sandaime, kunai and shuriken sticking out of him everywhere, making him resemble a human porcupine. The weapons also made Kudarne bleed out to some extent but not enough to kill him in the next few seconds. Hiruzen noticed something akin to water at the bottom of the anbu's mask.

…8…

Saliva. Tears maybe?

…7…

The anbu groaned in pain. "Won't be long," he grunted to the hokage.

…6…

' Why would he say that?' The hokage thought. 'Probably because he is dying. But there was some satisfaction in it. Even though he failed to kill me. Was he a spy? Assassin perhaps?'

…5…

The hokage noticed the bomb tag half-out of the anbu's bomb pouch with a slight glow around the kanji for ignite. 'Of course…'

…4…

"Exploding tag! Run!" Sarutobi bellowed. He quickly looked around and saw everyone fleeing he saw anbu performing shunshin no jutsu (body flicker technique) with the slow civilians. In the heat of the moment, he grabbed Homura with his right hand and used a seal-less shunshin outside.

…3…

The hokage suddenly appeared outside and released Homura. Who promptly proceeded to dry heave. It had been a while since he himself had been or done a shunshin. Practically teleporting with drastic changes in scenery does that to the inexperienced or infirm at times.

…2…

"Will you be alright?" Hiruzen asked.

"I will be fine. Where is Koharu?"

"Koharu?!"

…1…

"You must go back for her!"

"Take the boy!"

As Sarutobi was about to hand over the child to Homura, the council room exploded in shattered glass and assorted flying debris. His face became crestfallen in worry for his former teammate and hoped that no one, including her, got caught in the blast. He watched the anbu perform assorted suiton (water release) jutsu pulled from wells using water manipulation or water made with pure chakra. Knowing his duties as hokage, he proceeded to do the same.

 **SIX HOURS LATER**

Koharu lay on the bed, having been dosed heavily on anesthesia. She had yet to become more aware of her surroundings, as well as her immediate situation.

But Hiruzen at her bedside knew. And his insides were in turmoil of what it was. He was consumed by "IF."

"If only I had intervened more quickly…"

"If only I had screened anbu with personal tragic losses…"

"If only I had given the child to Homura, then grabbed both him and Koharu, all would have been saved…"

And so on.

Hiruzen sighed. He knew that the past was past and what done was done. But he knew when Koharu woke up, probably in the morning, she would not be pleased, especially given their rising animosity in the recent years concerning Ito's exile.

Who would explain to her? No one liked to be the bearer of bad news. Would Homura, their other former teammate do it? No. knowing him, he would come perhaps three hours after she was told. Makes it easier to deal with the after emotions as well as being a bit distant from it to separate himself from the problem should it become worse. Yes. Let a doctor do it. They were used to giving bad news after all. He would simply come with Homura later. Much later.

What a shitty week.

 **That's all folks.**

 **Sayonara.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hot off the press, just for you! Three chapters in less than 24 hours!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

 **3.**

It was a warm day in November in Konohagakure. Just a typical day filled with birds singing, people socializing with each other through games like shogi, eating contests or just relaxing. Children played with each other in the less busy streets and in playgrounds. And to top it off, a pleasant wind was blowing keeping everyone cool. All in all, a very pleasant day. There was even a festival planned for later. Everyone was happy.

Except for one lone individual. He was **not** happy. How could he? Well it was simple. The problem that is. The solution would not be.

A six year old boy sat on his butt hugging his knees in the shade of a large tree crying. He was upset because of unfairness. His spiky sun blessed hair was dirty and unkempt that drooped a bit over his crying cerulean eyes. His whiskers that exaggerated his emotions when smiling, grinning or frowning served to single him out from the crowd, to be ostracized. He was wearing a black t-shirt with a pair of small shorts complete with shinobi sandals. Throw these things together and you've got a very miserable looking orphan boy named Naruto Uzumaki.

All he wanted was a turn on the swing in the playground. He didn't go for someone who just went on. He just went to a girl who had been swinging for a good fifteen minutes. After all, give someone else a chance, no?

The girl just looked at him and threw a begging fit to stay on a little longer. In truth, she was a very spoilt little girl. What she couldn't beg for, she cried for. When that didn't work, she screamed. Naruto, trying to defuse her, told her that he could wait a little more.

"Sure!" he said with a high wattage smile.

Pleased with her victory, she stayed on the swing for another ten minutes before he asked again.

Cue crying.

This attracted her father's attention who was conversing with his wife on a nearby bench. He looked over to see the 'bane of Konoha' with his 'precious angel' and she was crying.

It did not look good.

"Oi, demon brat! Get away from my little girl, you!" he shouted, already looking for a stick or rock or something to punctuate his sentence with on the boy's person. He finally found a rather large branch and rushed at the boy, determined to defend his 'little angel'.

Before he could hit the boy however, two members of the Konaha Police force, clad in their typical robes complete with their clan crest (a red and white fan) appeared out of thin air, grasped him by the wrists and shoulders and then all three disappeared. About ten seconds later one returned and started to escort Naruto away. The man's wife however, let Naruto know how she felt about the whole situation.

"You damn demon! Look at the trouble you've caused! First you pester my child, get my husband arrested! WHAT NEXT?! Are you going to get ME KILLED NEXT?! Why don't you just die and let us live in peace! This, this… SPAWN OF THE KYU…!"

That was as far as she got in her rant as another operative of said force appeared behind her and landed a cuff on the nape of neck driving it upwards to the backside of her skull, effectively knocking her out. He then proceeded to grab the still crying girl and then disappeared with the two females in a swirl of leaves.

The remaining patrons of the playground didn't dare do anything while Naruto was escorted away by the first.

Nothing that could get them into trouble anyway.

Glaring and upset whispering was not punishable by law.

The miserable boy, no longer able to rein in his emotions, burst into tears and ran away from his handler into the woods. The Uchiha, deciding to give him some space, proceeded to shunshin away to return to patrolling.

The boy pumped his short legs as fast as they could carry him. He had no real destination.

Just to get away from the cold glares, angry murmurs and unfairness.

The boy was about to pass a large tree under which he tripped on one of its great protruding roots at his top speed. All it served to do was to bring him to a complete stop from his adrenaline enhanced run.

And add physical pain to his emotional one.

He crawled over to the tree, and started hugging his knees, still crying. The immense pain in his ankles started to dull and then fade altogether. The boy, however, continued to cry for another five minutes, after which he laid on his side still hugging his knees.

The ankle was sprained for a total of two minutes.

Looking up at the tree, he was lulled to sleep by its gently swaying branches in a hypnotic, rhythmic pattern. It felt…lovely.

Then he knew nothing more.

 **HOKAGE'S OFFICE**

"It sounds very promising. Furthermore, it stands to both of our nations benefits Kor-san," Hiruzen stated, after the discussion.

"Indeed, Hokage-dono," the ambassador replied. "In addition to sharing trade routes, we will be able to open new ones, greatly increasing financial assets of our respective villages. We also stand to gain militaristic clout when we assist each other in conflict."

"Excellent!" the hokage beamed. "The council won't need long to deliberate this. It doesn't need much to ponder over. The answer is as plain as black and white. In the meantime, I trust that you will find your accommodations to your liking. You shall be able to stay as long as you wish," Sarutobi went on, a bit eager to please. The Kyuubi attack six years ago had put a seemingly bottomless hole in the treasury that needed filling. Hence the reason the hokage wanted this treaty to go through.

Not that he would admit it to anyone.

"Arigatou, hokage-dono. I certainly shall."

The hokage flared his chakra once and two masked anbu ops appeared. "Anbu, please show our guests to their accommodations for the night."

As the kumo Nins left to be escorted to their hotel, the elderly hokage smiled. This was his first true smile in six years. Finally, things were going to get better for the hidden leaf. Yet, somehow, it felt… off…too good to be true.

He hoped he was wrong.

 **WITH THE KUMO NINJAS**

"It seems that the Raikage was right. We made him an offer he could not refuse. They really are desperate for the money to rebuild. The damn tree-huggers."

Kor Inafune was pleased. While he knew he was on a potentially suicide mission with his "guards" Keiji and Aizu, he knew that his death would bring more power to his home, The Village Hidden in the Clouds.

"What are the next steps, Kor?" Aizu quietly asked.

"Speak up man. Frankly, I'm tired of having to continuously having to read your lips to know what both you and Keiji are saying."

"You know it is in our nature for being born of the Horkuya clan," Aizu quietly stated.

"Well, at least you're not as bad as Keiji. You could count the words he says a year on one hand. Anyway, we all know the plan. Both of you will sneak into the Hyuuga clan compound and retrieve the heiress. They should all be focused on Lady Hitomi having contractions. Keiji, do you have the concentrated thyme essence?"

Keiji gave a small nod.

'Good… Keiji dropping the thyme essence in her tea, or even releasing it in the air in her room should cause her to have premature contractions. While everyone is fussing over her, we will "acquire" the heiress in the confusion. Having these Horkuya clan members will further help this endeavor, considering they don't have chakra coils, but instead manipulating yin and yang release to use stealth techniques. They should be, theoretically invisible to the byakugan dojutsu. Then Aizu knocks out the child bringing her to me. Then I shall use my swift release to get back to Kumo, leaving behind a clone with my cohorts to ensure we are not suspected, leaving at the time we told the hokage. We will have the byakugan, and Konoha none the wiser. We will have the byakugan, whether I live or die.'

"We're heading out one hour after the festival starts. People not drunk by then will be halfway drunk, as well as almost all the shinobi off duty. That's our best time. Both of you shall approach the compound from the south-east forest. According to our Intel, that area is the least guarded. Going with logic, should be even more so because of the festival tonight. Is that understood?"

"Hai," Aizu said, with Keiji nodding in his response.

"Very well."

 **FIVE HOURS LATER**

"Lady Hitomi is having contractions!"

"W…What? Its two months too early!"

"Unusual, yes. But we have to get her to the medical wing!"

"Hai!"

 **WITH KOR**

"Heh, went off with without a hitch. Once I've crossed the border, Kumo will win!" Kor muttered. 'Keiji and Aizu will have gotten back to the hotel with my clone, looking reserved by morning, as if we don't know anything.'

"As if!" He laughed.

He adjusted the drugged girl more comfortably for running before channeling even more of swift release, taking off even faster, practically faster than a blink.

So fast that he noticed it too late.

A stick of some sort had caught him in the face, right in the nose breaking it.

"Arrgghh!"

The child flew from his arms into the air.

Even in his pained state, he saw the child flying into the air and he panicked. He didn't progress this far in the plan just fail because he ran too fast to notice a stick in his way.

A stick?

He followed through with that train of thought as he got up and ran towards the spot he predicted the child would fall, seeing its general trajectory.

'A stick from one of these local trees should be supple, scratching my face as it bent, not flat out striking me as if it were as inert as a thick branch or artificial, man made, like…metal perhaps...'

Here his thought came to an abrupt halt as he saw the child disappear at the apex of its journey in the air, apparently due to someone, or something's intervention.

"What?! Who's there?!" he hissed in confusion, looking around wildly.

"Over here."

He turned to the source of the voice animatedly, only to see someone sitting on a tree stump holding the toddler against their chest. Kor, getting upset, charged at the stranger but at the last second, the man disappeared leaving Kor to punch at the air where his face would have been.

"Where are you?" He yelled looking around.

"Right here."

His attention was called again to the stump to see the same man sitting on the stump with the child, as if he had never moved. Kor responded again with the tried and wrong answer again, only for his fist to his a barrier of some sort. He drew back his fist and lunged with a kunai only for it to be harmlessly repelled to the side, the barrier only appearing when external contact reached within a few feet of the man.

Kor tried to attack the man for ten minutes, with each attempt ending in failure in everything but serving to get himself angry and frustrated. With his anger reaching its peak, he resorted to jutsu.

" **Raiton: Jibashi!"** (Lightning release: Electromagnetic murder)

Electricity channeled from the kumo ninja's hands to the man and surrounding area. Seeing the man still unharmed, he poured in three times the amount of chakra needed for the jutsu, for it to finally end in an explosion around the stranger. As the smoke cleared, Kor was treated to the sight of scorched grass and ground in a perfect circle around him.

"Are you done yet?"

Another voice, but similar sounded behind Kor to see an identical replica of stranger standing thirty feet away from him.

'Shit. A clone.' For the first time, Kor studied the man. He was dressed in a jet black trench coat with a hood over his head. His look was completed with a holster with a small stick in it four inches long as well as shinobi sandals.

'Wait… stick? Could that be the weapon that struck me? But it's too small…'

"You have to kill me to release the barrier, and it will disperse my clone as well." The stranger said.

"Who are you?!"

"Who I am is of no consequence. This is even my debut appearance. However, what is important is who and what I fight for, including this girl."

"You don't even know her!" Kor yelled back.

"I know she is the victim of less than honorable circumstances."

"If you give her to me, Kumo will pay you handsomely."

"Meaningless paper and metal."

"Very well. If you cannot be bought, you will be killed."

At that, Kor took out his kunai and held it in a forward grip, studying the black-clad man's stance or lack thereof.

"Are you not ready to fight?" Kor taunted.

"I have already won." The stranger replied.

"More mind games…" Kor gritted his teeth. "Die!" Kor ran at the man at full speed, channeling swift release. With speed like his, the man will be dead inside a second.

Just as he lunged with his kunai, one inch before striking the man's chest, the stranger grabbed his knife arm at the wrist with his left arm, and jabbed his right arm through Kor's armpit, sidestepped and planted the palm of his hand against the back of Kor's head. He then slammed Kor's head right unto the hard ground, effectively knocking him out.

"Pathetic."

His clone dropped the barrier and the original heaved Kor unto his shoulder. The strange party then made their way to Konoha to return the poor girl to her rightful home.

 **Well, that's the third chappie. Felt like a good place to end it. Hope you enjoyed it. You will notice I didn't even try to create a fight scene. That's because the gap in power between the two men are astounding. Like a genin and a kage. If you need to know what the move looks like, check out the movie "The Protector" with Tony Jaa performing it close to end when a lot of black clothed guys were trying to beat on him close to the end. (Lots of bone breaking action. Sigh. Anyway, thanks for reading, review, and until next time…**

 **Sayonara.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Uh-huh. Four chapters in just under three days. Didn't expect to post before Tuesday but, seeing people reading this encourages me. I'm really on a role. As for the first Author note in chapter 1, I mean I won't have a regular update day in a week or month e.g. 14th of every month or every Friday or something. (Revised: I have updated regularly to a schedule and hope that I will continue to do so. I have updated once per fortnight. Will eventually be once every 21 days.) It's just that I may not have a regular day inside a month. Not that I would procrastinate for months before updating. That's sick. I know what it feels like to wait for an eternity before getting an update to a story I really like. If the story is finished, I'll let you know so you can read other fics in peace. (I'm aiming for at least 200,000) But I need reviews people, it's my addictive medication. If I don't get 'em, the story might get sick from withdrawal.**

 **Anyway, on with the story.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. But so help me, if Masashi ever uses my ideas, I'm gonna commit arson. Get the hint?!**

 **4.**

"Where is she?!"

"We don't know, Hiashi-sama, we have already searched the whole compound, the festival, the whole village! She is nowhere to be found!"

Hiashi was angry. No, he was downright furious. Some third party had to be involved. There was no way a four, on the verge of five year old could be able to escape detection from the all seeing byakugan. But who? He could not call anyone to mind. If the child was really outside the village, there had to be foul play afoot. He couldn't call to mind anyone who would do this to him or his daughter. Not anyone alive or locked up anyway. But even if they could have been there, they had no means of being able to sneak into a compound filled with people able to see through walls, kidnap his daughter and sneak her out of a shinobi run village without the tiniest bit of suspicion. But what's done was done. They had to pick up the pieces, relieve some Hyuuga guards because of incompetence and find his daughter!

"Alright, that's enough Kuya," Hiashi said to the nervous branch member. "Ishall go to the hokage to request his help in using his crystal ball to find her."

The frazzled Branch woman was relieved. She thought she would have been punished for bringing bad news. While Hiashi did not practice using the caged bird seal, like other main branch members, particularly the elders, he was… unpredictable at times of great adversity. This being one of those times.

Hiashi made his way through the village on his way to the hokage. Everywhere he could see families having fun together as well as the occasional Hyuuga clan member. When possible he would tell them to stop and to state he was seeking the hokage's help and that they should spread the word. Seeing even more happy families as he walked, he couldn't help but think that he may have been hard on Hinata, trying to advance her development like her cousin Neji. Thinking of those times, he prayed that he would have another chance with her. As her father, not as her clan head.

 **TEN MINUTES LATER**

"I am here to see the hokage."

"He is free, Hiashi-sama. Make your way upstairs and knock."

"Thank you."

"The secretary for the Sandaime hokage settled back into her work with a sigh, wondering why the Hyuuga clan head wanted to see the hokage. By all means, he should have been at home with his family. Or even at the festival. Hell, why wasn't SHE herself at the festival. But instead she was cooped up working, just like her boss.

Hiashi knocked at the door.

"Come in." the muffled voice from behind the door said.

"Hiashi turned the knob and pushed it open to reveal the hokage in a blue kimono. Apparently, the hokage was just about ready to leave himself to attend the festival.

"You just caught me, I was about ready to leave." The wizened hokage chuckled.

"Hokage-sama, a moment of your time. I have an important request."

'Important?'

"By all means, Hiashi-san. What is it?" the old hokage inquired.

"I wish for you to locate my daughter, Hinata, so I may know her whereabouts," the slightly frowning Hyuuga said.

"But isn't this a clan problem? Even more so, this should be no problem for the Hyuuga's dojutsu." (I believe dojutsu means eye technique. If I 'm not mistaken.)

"That IS the problem, Sarutobi-sama. We cannot locate her within the village walls."

"This is serious. I assume you wish for me to use the technique of the crystal ball?"

"Please do."

The hokage got out his crystal ball and started the technique. Soon, an image of two men appeared, one of which held Hinata against his chest while the other held a man over his shoulder. The unconscious man on the shoulder was recognized as the ambassador he was speaking with earlier. Hiashi and the hokage saw the one with Hinata about to knock at the door that the two black-clothed men stood in front of.

"Where is that?" Hiashi asked.

"It seems…familiar…Is that our do-"

Both Hyuuga and Sarutobi froze.

At the same time of the image of the man knocking at the door, they heard a knock at their door.

Both Hiashi and Hiruzen shared an uneasy look. Hiashi nodded to him as if saying to let him in. The elderly hokage then flared his chakra twice to tell the hiding anbu in the room of a potential threat before he said the two words, as clearly as he could manage.

"Come in."

The door pushed in to let the two men in, along with their human baggage. Hiruzen took in their description thoroughly. Wearing a black trench coat not unlike Ibiki's, with black full length pants along with black shinobi sandals some sort of kanji he couldn't see clearly. He also wore gloves that exposed the tips of his fingers with protective metal plates on the back of the wrist. The man's head was covered by a hood that was complimented by a face mask that came up to the bridge of the man's nose. His eyes were shadowed by the hood of his clothes.

"Who are you?" Hiashi asked the hooded man tensely, bordered on the edge of threatening.

The man, either not noticing the tone, or ignoring it, replied in an even tone.

"The man who has returned your daughter safely and negated a potentially dangerous outcome."

"Explain yourself. We wish to know what transpired." The hokage requested, now calming seeing the mysterious man as no longer a threat; not now anyway.

"Simple. This, your daughter-," he gestured to the sleeping girl. "Was kidnapped by this man-," he nodded at the still unconscious man. "- and I intervened one mile before he reached the border. Given by what the man said to me, this was an attempt of Kumogakure to gain the byakugan dojutsu."

"This seems acceptable. Could you describe what happened?"

"In short, he made around…28 attempts to harm me and the child through a barrier…" the clone said, speaking for the first time. The clone then handed the sleeping girl to her father, who cradled her to his chest relieved.

"Then I challenged him, he ran at me and I knocked him out."

"Oh, so he was exhausted then, I take it?" Hiashi asked.

"No. He only used one B-ranked raiton technique. He had plenty of chakra to spare. He was far from weak, unless he has pathetic reserves. But that's unlikely, for he had swift release."

"In more detail, please."

"As I said before, he ran at me using his bloodline, I countered his attack and knocked him out."

Hiashi and the hokage widened their eyes.

'It is hard to believe. An ordinary ninja against one with swift release is like having Maito Guy using three gates worth of speed against a fresh genin's speed. It's phenomenal. This man is indeed powerful.' They thought.

"Seeing as you intervened in our favor, I take it you're affiliated with Konoha then?" The hokage asked, trying to look for anything that could tell him of who he is. Or was.

"No. Since you are seeing no headband on my person, you should realize that I am not, not Konoha or any other."

"A missing nin?!" Hiashi was alarmed. His Byakugan activated, ready to act.

The anbu in the room leapt from hiding and attempted to incapacitate the strange man.

Attempted to.

A magenta colored barrier appeared in front of the unmoving man and his clone that electrocuted the two anbu into unconsciousness.

"Konoha is such a grateful village," the man said sarcastically. "Perhaps I should have helped Kumo after all. Furthermore why did you jump to the conclusion that I was a missing nin. After all, I was never a ninja. I merely have the skills of one. Leaf shadow, reign in your remaining anbu. I can still sense their intent to attack."

"At ease." At the hokage's order everyone relaxed. Hiashi looked at the man for a few seconds more with his byakugan active before deactivating it.

"But then why help us? I must know why. You don't know us, work for us or even against Kumo. You had no reason to." Hiashi said, trying to get over the fact that the man disabled two anbu without even moving."

"So you would prefer I assist Kumo, I take it?"

"No! I am grateful to you sir. You have my gratitude for reuniting a daughter to her worried father. You have my blessings and well wishes."

"Douitashimashite."

"Would you like to work for Konaha?" the hokage asked, wishing to have such a powerful ninja in his ranks. Or at least have a friend instead of an enemy.

"No thanks. I work for the lesser fortunate. They are everywhere, in all villages, every nation. In any case take this man. I tire of his smell. He lost control of his bowels when he was knocked out." He then dropped the man on the ground then he left his final words.

"I pray that you will no longer need my help. However Hyuuga," he looked at Hiashi. "I may return someday in the future for a favor someday. Nothing undesirable I promise you. You too, Leaf Shadow." He nodded to the hokage.

"Farewell."

The clone faded away (literally faded, not poofed away, from opaque, translucent to transparent then nothing.)

The original stepped backwards to a shadow in a corner of the room and was gone.

"I don't sense him. Hiashi?" Hiruzen whispered.

Hiashi walked to the corner and felt it and his hand came away with nothing.

"Why didn't you use your byakugan?" the aged kage asked.

"Remember when I had my byakugan activated earlier?"

"Yes, of course."

"When I looked at him with it, he vanished. I could only see him without it."

The hokage was baffled.

"That is unheard of! Who is that man?"

 **Uh-huh. I know. But I ain't telling. If you review though, you might find out sooner rather than later. Well that's all people.**

 **Sayonara.**


	5. Chapter 5

**The night is lonely. The house is asleep with a solitary figure slouching over his keyboard, furiously typing before his inspiration leaves him. He will do his best to keep his readers entertained, hoping they will be satisfied until the next chapter is published.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I WILL NEVER OWN NARUTO. JUST MY OWN IDEAS FOR THIS FANFICTION. SO TO ALL YOU LAWYERS OUT THERE HUNGRY FOR A GOOD LAWCASE TO SUE ME, IT AIN'T HAPPENING.**

 **5.**

A lone boy slowly returned to the waking world he had left sometime before. He wiped away the matter encrusted at the edges of his blue eyes with his sensitive hands. It felt as if they were being punctured with pins and needles. He must have fallen asleep on them and cut off the blood flow to an extent. He sat up, trying to get his bearings before remembering.

'The playground. Those mean looks and those mean words that made me feel so sad. And that lady. She said spawn of the nine. Nine something. She didn't get to finish her sentence. What did she mean? I'll just ask jiji. I bet he knows all the stuff in the world!' he thought with ending finality.

When he had gone to sleep, it was around one pm. If he had a mature amount of intelligence, he would realize that the shadows were made by an eastern sun.

He looked up at the tree and smiled. He had had a really good nap.

Whether he had realized it ore not… He had lost a full 24 hours while he was asleep, it seems that he still wasn't old enough yet to have the necessary discerning skills.

He ran home, his cheaply made red and white necklace glowed a faint white.

 **WITH HINATA**

The lavender eyed girl woke up and gave a small yawn. As her lavender eyes adjusted to the bright light streaming through her window, she suddenly noticed that her mother was sitting on the opposite side of the bed, smiling at her.

"Good morning Hinata-chan," she said happily.

"Good morning kaa-chan," Hinata replied, albeit haggardly.

'They must have drugged her. The poor girl doesn't realize that from last night until now she had been asleep for eighteen hours.' Hitomi thought. "How are you feeling?"

"I still feel very tired, kaa-chan. As if I haven't slept at all."

'There must still be a little left in her system. She will have to sleep it off the rest.'

"Very well musume. You may go back to bed. You don't have to go to your private lessons today. However, you will speak to your father when he calls for you, is that alright Hinata-chan?"

"Hai, kaa-chan."

'I hope you be alright.' "I love you my musume."

"I love you too kaa-chan."

With that, Hitomi left the room.

By herself now, Hinata thought it was strange that her lessons were not to be taken today. She had them every day for an hour. They were unavoidable, except on special days of celebration in the village or her birthday. So why today?

With that thought, she laid her head back on her pillow, and was soon asleep once more.

 **With Koharu**

The kettle whistled its special call but Koharu groaned. While she wanted the tea inside she wished she had the energy to get up and get it, but she had just settled down in her most comfortable bed with a new book that promised intrigue with mystery. The kettle called for another minute before she gave up with a sigh and dangled her lower torso of the bed. But she lost her balance and landed on her butt.

"Kuso!"

Still struggling to use her weary muscles and aged bones, she pulled herself up using the bed frame as support. Finally rising, she hobbled to the corner on one leg and grabbed her crutches.

Six years of being a post-amputee, and she hasn't grown used to it. She had only grown more surly, taciturn and bitter. It hadn't gotten any easier. Instead, it had grown more and more difficult in her advancing age. As it had grown bothersome to cope with to do normal and simple everyday activities like walking or dancing she used to enjoy doing so much. Not to mention new hurdles like stairs.

Which is why she moved from her third floor apartment to one on the ground floor.

Making it to her kitchen, she leaned one of her crutches against her kitchen table and leaned on the other, bracing on it and turned off the flame. She then poured the hot beverage into a cup and set it down. And not a moment too soon.

'Phantom' pain had set in on her amputated left leg making her grit her teeth. Her cut nerves still registered pain below her knee when it was no longer there.

'Kami, why me? What have I done to deserve this? I can't help but feel it's that brat's fault. If it hadn't been for him, the anbu wouldn't have bombed the council buiding.'

It was a weak accusation and she knew it. But she needed someone to blame.

Tears streamed down her face as she wished for relief from the pain. Both physical and emotional.

'And Ito, my son. Where is he? I don't even know if he's still alive, what with Hiruzen keeping him from me with his damn exile. Doesn't he even care?'

 **With Naruto**

"So Jiji, what do you think she meant?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi was nervous and a bit angry. He had good reason to. Someone was going to have to disappear from the public view permanently for practically breaking an S ranked secret.

One that was being kept secret from the whiskered boy in front of him. Hell, even the secret itself was an S ranked secret.

"I have a few ideas, but they are irrelevant," Hiruzen responded.

"What does ir…iri..irrevv… that word mean," Naruto asked.

"It means that it isn't applicable to this situation."

"What does the big 'a' word mean?"

Sarutobi grinned in his head. He wasn't called 'The Professor' for nothing. By continuously using large words that lead to his asking for definitions, he would lead him further and further from the original topic until Naruto forgot about it. He was only six years old after all.

"Never mind Jiji. Uhh, what were we talking about again?"

The hokage sweat dropped. He didn't even have to try that hard. Anxious to ensure Naruto forgot, He said, regrettably:

"You wanted me to take you out for some ramen a little later?"

"OK! Will ya Jiji? PLEASE?!"

A thundercloud came into existence over Hiruzen's head. The price to pay to keep Naruto in the dark. Was it worth his life savings?

 **WITH HINATA, THREE HOURS LATER**

Hinata woke again, this time with less grogginess. She felt more rested this time. She took her time waking, in no rush to get to her lessons. She changed her clothes and went to the bathroom to take care of her hygienic issues. Soon finishing, she drew on her typical hyuuga robes, only now remembering that she was to see her father. It was only now that she was nervous. Her father was not a man easily impressed and he was far from pleased recently with her behavior to the branch house of late. While he did not care if she used the seal her not, he wanted her to be a bit more assertive.

'Might as well see what father wants.'

As she made her way to her father's office, she heard snatches of whispering of increasingly quieting conversations between hyuuga members of the compound.

"…There she is…"

"…I wonder where she was…"

"…Oh, now she shows up, when we're not looking…"

This confused her. It was obvious they were talking about her. But they were saying things that pointed to the case of her being missing, when she knew she didn't go anywhere. She had stayed home all day, before going to bed at the usual hour.

'I stayed home, what are they talking about?'

Finally arriving in front of her father's office, she was about to knock before she heard talking. Leaning her head at the door, she listened, even knowing that it was wrong.

"…Did you tell her to see me?..."

"…Of course…"

"…Do you think she knows?"

"…I don't think so. But we should check. Can't hurt to ask her…"

"…If she doesn't know…Should we tell her?..."

"...I don't know. She might not be able to keep it secret because of her age…"

"…But she is more mature than most at her age…"

"…Tell you what. Judging by her behavior, I'll decide whether she gets to know or not…"

These voices obviously belonged to her mother and father. But something big was happening and it revolved around her, that much was true. She quietly tip toed back up the hall and made walking noises back to the office door and knocked.

"May I come in father?"

There were sounds of shifting around in the room before her father answered.

"Come in."

She turned the knob and entered to see her pregnant mother and her father sitting beside each other on the other side of the desk.

The whole room was very formal with a lot of books and scrolls packing the shelves complimented by a rather large mahogany desk. The room's first and most important function was to let the guest know they were talking to someone important and that they should know their place.

Needless to say, it was doing its job well on Hinata's psyche. But seeing her mother there also helped to give her some confidence.

"You wished to see me father?"

"Yes Hinata. I wished to speak to you about events pertaining to last night. Can you tell me of anything that happened after you had your dinner."

Hinata thought over the whole night carefully.

"Nothing unusual father. Only a bit strange."

"Explain." Her father, normally stoic, now showed signs of interest.

"While sleeping, I could hear voices penetrating my dreams."

"What sort of voices?" Her mother queried.

"I could hear laughter, and someone yelling 'Jibashi'. I also got the feeling of floating in my sleep, even though my dream had nothing do with that."

"Did you have pleasant dreams Hinata-chan?" her mother asked going off topic, much to Hinata's relief.

"Hai kaa-chan."

"So my shujin, what say you?"

"Hai, she shall know. Hinata, the short of it is that you were kidnapped."

"Kidnapped, father? What does that mean?" Hinata asked, now perplexed.

"Hmm, to kidnap someone means that you stole a person from their family."

"Oh. But I don't remember being stolen by anyone, father." Hinata was alarmed. "All I know is that I went to bed and woke up late. I'm sure I would know this."

"Do you know what medication is musume?"

"Hai mother."

"They gave you special medication in your neck to make sure you would sleep."

"So that's why I was feeling so sleepy, even when I woke up this morning."

"Hai. You were stolen by a kumo ninja, they wanted to carry you back to Kumogakure."

"Yes. Their headbands have this symbol." Her father showed her the symbol of kumo on a sheet of paper. "They wanted to steal you for your byakugan. They would have removed your eyes or turned you into a breeding machine when you came of age." Hiashi was rapidly becoming disgusted.

"What does 'breeding machine' mean?"

Hiashi catching his slip too late, having just realizing that he was speaking to a four, going-on-five year old after all. Come to think of it, his wife was none too pleased that he was exposing sensitive topics at least eight years too early.

 **And done. This was the last chapter to expose the past. These 5 chapters sole purpose was to introduce the strange man's debut appearance and now we can move on to the academy years. Yay! However, it will have to go through some planning and you should have an update by Thursday. Don't forget to review. (Revised: Don't question why I flesh out some characters who have very little appearance in the future. If I mention a name, take note of it.)**

 **That's all folks.**

 **Sayonara.**


	6. Chapter 6

**As promised, we are now in the academy life. Final year and he is dead last in the class, like in the manga. But he seems… different. Talk to you later.**

 **What the hell do you want from me?! The disclaimer clearly says and I quote: 'I don't own Naruto.' (Grumbles.) 'Damn it all.'**

 **6.**

He sighed and let his head hit the desk as he suffered through Iruka-sensei's boring lecture. Look at it. Look at it damn it! A perfect sunny day, within arms reach, going to waste. Instead, he had to watch it, like a man having his money stolen and spent right in front of him. (Demanding wives in marriages. We see it everyday people! :c )

"…And that's why ninja wire is so stro… Naruto! Wake up!" Iruka shouted, stopping in the middle of his lecture to chuck his eraser at the seemingly asleep Uzumaki.

"I wasn't sleeping!" Naruto shouted before lifting his head.

Unfortunately, when he lifted his head, the eraser clocked him right on the bridge, squarely between his eyes.

"OW!"

"Serves you right! If you were paying attention, you wouldn't have gotten hit!"

The whole class, minus an emotionless Aburame, a lavender-eyed girl and a brooding Uchiha, who looked on intently, erupted in a laughing riot.

"Ha ha ha! It got him right between his eyes!"

"Bam! Owww, like a widdle ol' baby!"

"Naruto is such a baka! Sasuke-kun would have dodged like a pro!" A certain pink headed girl boasted.

"Aww, Sakura-chan, I didn't have time to dodge!"

She stomped over to him and gave him her rebuttal, in the form of a knuckle sandwich right in his noggin. "Naruto-baka!"

Needless to say, he now had a large bump to go with the welt on his face.

"OW OW OW!"

"Alright, cut it out class. Naruto, sorry for thinking you were, asleep but you need to keep your head up and pay attention."

"Hai, Iruka-sensei."

"Now throw me back the eraser."

"Here, you go!"

Iruka stared large eyed to see a large yellow balloon coming at him that seemed to have to have suspicious contents coming at him.

Splash.

"Pink paint?! NARUTOOOOO!"

But the prankster Uzumaki had already beaten a hasty retreat out the window.

"I'm gonna get you for this!" Iruka yelled, exasperated.

"Iruka's all pink!"

"Pink is such an awful colour."

"That's my hair colour INO-PIG!"

"BILLBOARD-BROW!"

The two girls stomped over to each other, insulted each other some more which lead to a catfight over Sasuke's love life.

As Iruka looked on, still covered in pink paint, he did the only thing to salvage some esteem in his students' eyes.

"Class, break for lunch."

As the class rushed past him through the door outside, he wondered if it was Naruto's gift to make a class go to shit in two minutes. After thinking of the blond, he went to tell Mizuki to take over the afternoon class while he got himself cleaned up.

 **With Naruto**

'Ha I nailed Iruka sensei with that one! He didn't even see it coming! I wonder what he was yelling though. I'm gonna get you? Even if he does, I'll just get him back twice as hard!"

As he ran through the busy streets, he noticed that the streets were parting, as if to give him free way. 'Heh. At least that's a perk. They leave me alone. I should be grateful. They don't beat on me like they used to. I still remember everyone, every single person that's done me wrong. Should I want their acknowledgement. They are noticing me when they are ignoring me. I'll get stronger, just to show you bastards that I didn't need your help to get where I will be.'

Finally slowing to a stop, he saw that he had arrived. "Yes! Made it!" lifting one of the privacy flaps, he saw two of his most favorite people. "Hey Oji-san! Hey Ayame-neechan!"

"Hey there, my number one customer!" Ichiraku hailed, smiling.

"Hey Naruto-kun!"

"How are you guys?" Naruto asked.

"We're doing well. You?"

"Oh the usual. I got bored in class and pranked Iruka-sensei." Naruto gave a fox-like grin.

"Again?"

"Again. You would think he would learn by now that I don't put water in my balloons."

"So what are you having today Naruto? I need a new radio!"

"Tou-san!"

"I'm joking!" the elder Ichiraku chuckled."The usual?"

"Yes please!"

Naruto, for once, sat still as he waited for them to prepare the deliciousness that is the Kami-blessed food. From the perfectly round dumplings, to the blemish free pork and chicken strips, the smooth noodles that slid down the throat to the delicious broth that warmed his stomach comfortingly.

As expected, Naruto lost his patience.

"Oji-san! I'm dying of hunger!" Naruto whimpered like a struck dog.

"You're so melodramatic. Here it is."

With that said, Ayame placed a miso ramen, another one with pork and her father came out with a chicken flavored one and a…"

Naruto's nose twitched. "Oji-san, is that…?"

"Yes Naruto. Today is Tuesday."

"Nooooo!"

Naruto, the hokage ordered us to give it to you. So you will have to become hokage to cancel his order." Ayame smirked.

"You bet I will! Now let's get it over with!" Naruto reached for the bowl, looked into the bowl and grimaced.

"Something wrong Naruto?" Ichiraku asked.

"It's an abomination!"

"It's soup. And I tried my best to make it more tolerable for you. I even had them soaking in miso spices overnight." Ayame replied in a complaining tone.

Naruto looked into the bowl. Instead of being filled with noodles, meat and dumplings, it was filled with…"

"Spinach, broccoli and brussel sprouts. Yuck! Well, Itadikimasu…" he said hesitantly.

Outside the ramen stand came agonized groans, moans and the occasional scream as Naruto tortured himself.

 **With Tenten**

"Bye Masato!"

"Goodbye Tenten-chan!"

Tenten checked her gear as she walked out the door. "Weapon scrolls…Check. Kunai holster…Check. Shuriken pack…Check…

"Tenten-chan, aren't you forgetting something?"

"Oh! I almost forgot."

Tenten ran back to Masato and gave him a bone crushing hug. "I'm going to miss you Tenten-chan."

"Masato, it's only for a week. A whole week without me having to bother you about when is mealtime."

"Yes. You eat so much that the white of the fridge turned black. I wonder where you are putting it all?"

"You know as well as I do that that was Asami-niisan's fault. He did that trying to make the refrigerator grey."

Masato chuckled."That boy really is touched in the head. He is the only person I know who calls the colour grey 'blackish white' and 'whitish black'. Or that time when he…"

"Oh, excuse me Masato, do you know the time?"

"About a quarter to midday."

"Oh no. I'm late! I gotta get going. Don't wanna miss my mission meeting time! I'll catch up on old times with you next time Masato!"

"Don't you mean last week?!" Masato yelled back.

"You know what I mean!" Tenten shouted back over her shoulder as she started ninja-sprinting. Now alone with her thoughts, she realized that she still hadn't called Masato tou-san yet. It's been two years. Two years of crying herself to sleep, two years of sadness, two years… and now, she was ready to move on. While she may never call him father, he will hold the place of one, and when she returned from her mission, she was going to make sure he realized how much he meant to her. Not as the orphanage owner, but as the father figure in her life. But she wondered to herself. If she acknowledged Masato as her father-figure, was she betraying her biological father, Kami bless his soul? And what of her dear mother? She missed her terribly. But she was trying to ward off the memories of their lives of family, back when life was go…

"Stop it! You are a kunoichi, damn it! Act like one! Kunoichi don't get emotional breakdowns. No, no, NO! Don't start acting like an emotional bitch! Don't you dare cry!"

But it was too late. Tears streamed down her face, no holds barred. She fought the battle and lost. She had been walking a precarious edge but she had fallen into her whirlpool of memories in which there was no getting out. All she could do was let herself go, and hope that the whirlpool will dump her out at the earliest convenience.

 **With Sasuke**

"So Sasuke-kun, do you wanna-"

"No."

"Well, how about-"

"No." The pinkette was dejected. Her 'true love' shot down both her invitations, only by using the most notorious single syllable word. She cowered like a dog with its tails between its legs. "Later Sasuke-kun." To which the Uchiha didn't even bother to reply.

The brooding Uchiha sighed and placed his chin in between the palms of his hands. As he sat on the park bench, he tried to take his mind of Itachi for once.

'The dobe. Am I the only one who saw it? I could see that the eraser was going to hit his goggles, probably hard enough to break them, but its like he was trying to **decide** whetheror not to let it hit him. But he's just a dead last. I am stronger than him, more skilled. I am an Uchiha! But it was strange. If it really is like what I saw, why not let it hit his goggles. I know they are cheaply made and sold at a discount price because they lack a meaningful purpose. Is it the goggles? Or are the goggles hiding something?'

Suddenly, the Uchiha grinned. That's it."

"I'll just take the goggles from him. If he tries to protect it, it'll mean I was right. If he doesn't, I'm worried for nothing. Hn. Now, how to kill Itachi."

Sasuke walked off, falling back in his pastime of imagining himself torturing his traitorous elder brother.

 **With Naruto**

"Ugh. Thanks… I guess. At least old man hokage won't force feed me again."

"You don't make it easy Naruto. At least you didn't run away this week."

Naruto was exasperated. "I attempted to. I would have gotten away if **someone** hadn't grabbed both my legs." He cast a half-hearted glare at Ayame. He couldn't believe that the mild mannered girl could or would do something as to tackle his legs while her father crammed the remaining broccoli into his mouth and forced him to swallow.

"Well, that's it. No more of that ramen, dattebayo."

"At least, none until next Tuesday." Teuchi smirked.

"I'll just stay home on that day then." Naruto was feeling smug.

"Do you want the hokage to send someone after you again?"

Naruto shivered. The last person the hokage sent was no joke. Naruto woke up in the middle of the night to see an Anbu with a neko mask and purple hair had tied his limbs to the four corners of his bed. The anbu went on to shove vegetables in his mouth and then pinch his nostrils shut to make sure he ate it so he could breathe through his mouth. Not an enlightening experience, or one he wished to have again anytime soon. Or ever, for that matter.

"Well I'll see you later guys. By the way, I need the twenty bowls of ramen for next week, you know, in those take out bowls you guys have?"

"Sure Naruto-kun. When and where?" Ayame asked.

"Here's the address. I'll want them on Wednesday so I'll pay for them on Tuesday. I also want one of these pictures taped to the bottom of the bowls." He handed them a small parcel with the address card taped to the top. "I really want this to go through."

"Since it's you Naruto, I'll do top-of-the-line service. It's a priority!" Teuchi exclaimed.

"Naruto-kun… Really? This picture?" "The brown haired girl asked, dumbfounded.

"There's nothing wrong with it. Later guys!" And with that, he jumped off the stool and made his way home.

"So what's the picture of?" the elder Ichiraku asked. Ayame, chuckled and handed one of the pictures to him. He took it from her and peered at it. It was a drawing of a wide grin with three lines on either side of the grin, akin to whiskers. One could say that Naruto drew his own grin as a signature of sorts. "Heh heh. That boy is certainly eccentric."

 **At home**

Naruto pushed open his door and sighed.

"Home sweet home."

" **Is it boy? You know it is in terrible condition. Hell, even those orphans you are trying to treat with the ramen live better than you. Why don't you go live there? This pathetic landlord charges you for this pigsty, surrounded by people in this district who hate you. Pull off the seal and I'll help you."**

'Oh, you again. Isn't it your personal rule to speak only when spoken to? And you know why I don't live there. You ARE the reason. Besides I'm not about to do something foolish. Do you take me for a fool?!'

" **No. I take you for an idiot."**

'What's the differ… wait a minute! Goddamn Kyuubi!'

There was only demonic chuckling coming from the recesses of his mind.

Sigh. Sometimes, he's tolerable, like now. Helpful, rarely, pain in the ass, most of the time.

Right now, the kitsune demon was toeing the edge of pain in the ass.

Naruto walked into the kitchen and opened his fridge. Easy choice. Either water or milk. Sampling the milk, however, the choice dropped to one.

"Blegh! The 15th it spoils huh? I bought this milk two days ago! I'm just opening it.!" 'Kyuubi!' he yelled inwardly. "What's today's date?! Do you know?"

" **The 28** **th** **."**

"That's the… 1,2,3,4…8th time that fucking shopkeeper screwed me over! Lets see…Yoshiro Suhan…"

Naruto took out his notepad that was filled with names. "Alright, he's under shopkeepers…" He continued to scroll through it. "Found it… mmm hmm. Kyuubi, what do you call? Rumor or prank." Naruto took a ryu coin and flipped it.

" **Rumor, tails."**

The coin landed back in Naruto's palm. 'Heh, you won again. WITH AN INREDIBLE NINE WIN STREAK USING ONLY TAILS. DO YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THAT'S JUST CHANCE? Wait a minute. Nine wins… on tails."

" **I always pick tails. The nine wins are a fluke. Even though foxes were always deemed lucky."**

"Mmhmm. Bullshit. You got nine wins. On tails. Nine tails. I think you're manipulating the spin somehow."

" **Alright. Enough of that. Get in here. It's time. I can no longer suppress it."**

Naruto sighed. 'I thought I had more time. I wish that things were different, but the village, they mistreated for so long.' A lone tear slid down his cheek. 'When I go through with this, make sure that no one gets hurt when the seal is removed.'

The Kitsune did not answer.

Naruto put everything in order in the house before he laid down on the bed, as straight as a board with his arms at his sides.

" **Boy, the seal is failing and we will both be lost within the hour so we must get this started. I will begin in a minute. Any last words?"**

"Kyuubi, I'm so tired. Perhaps in the new life we'll be friends huh?"

" **You are such a baka."**

Outside the apartment, Naruto's muffled screams sounded as his life flashed before his eyes. His head was caught in a metaphorical blender as his mind was virtually ripped apart. His body felt like it was on fire as the seal was removed. Naruto's eyes closed as his body finally stopped its voluntary and involuntary clenching. In the quiet that was Naruto's dilapidated apartment, a red glow came from his bedroom where he lay.

 **And that's chapter 6 .Yeah. That's it folks. You just have to keep reading, piece shit together to get to see the whole picture when this jigsaw puzzle is done. And don't assume you know what happened you smart alecks. We all know what ass-u-me does. It makes an ass of you and me. Catch you next time in chapter 7.**

 **Sayonara.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Heh. Not bad for my first cliffhanger. Here is the resolution.**

 **By the way, I don't Naruto. Just so you know. Besides, I don't think I can sketch 16 pages every week. I can't even make a decent doodle drawing.**

 **7.**

His eyes snapped open, only to close again them in a squint. To wake up, only to have the sun stare you in the face was not his idea of a fun time. Then again, what did he expect if he set up camp in the desert and laid down in his pallet belly up. He crawled out of his sleeping bag and roused himself out of his sleep-induced lethargy. His joints made little popping noises as he stood up, raised his arms over his head and stretched to his full length and yawned.

"Heh. Guess I just had to sleep out in the open huh? What's the saying say? Where you make your bed is where you have to lie in it? What time is it?" He said to himself.

"WHAT TIME IS IT?!" He shouted to no one in particular.

'God-damnit! Shut the fuck up! It's too early for this shit!'

'No, you shut up! It's eight in the morning. We should have woken up three hours ago!'

'You are all fools. All he asked was what time it was. There was no need for quarrel.'

Immediately, more voices chimed in with their opinions, only serving to cause a massive headache to the man who was rapidly losing his patience.

"Alright, I heard an eight am so that will do. The rest of you shut the hell up!" The man was pissed.

'You have to lose control of us eventually! Kami, this is what I've been reduced to?! Kuso!' A voice, **a fucking voice in someone's head?!** Couldn't I have been killed by a normal enemy? Or better yet, if you had never been bo-'

"That's enough." The yet to be named man said. "You seem to forget who is in control. You shall be punished." Immediately following, the profane voice was heard shrieking in pain but it was faint, as if coming from somewhere far away.

"Now then, does anyone else have something to say?"

He was met with unadulterated silence.

"Good. Now who are these fools coming?"

The man looked out across the desert. It seems that a group of ninja would soon pass through his location. It must have been suna ninjas; they were coming from the direction of Sunagakure.

He drew on his robes quickly, pulled his hood over his head and applied his face mark. He didn't want his unique facial features getting out. Ugh. Ninjas. They were all the same. He would simply talk with them. If that didn't work, would he fight or take flight?

 **With Hinata**

She walked through the village, a little worried. The academy's school day was finished and her favorite blond had failed to attend. While he openly admitted... no... shouted that he hated the academy for having a lack in action and to being 75% bookwork, he never skipped a whole day. Come running in at the final hour, but never a full day. Besides, while he was reckless, he wasn't stupid. (This was debatable :c ) The genin exam was the day after tomorrow. He wouldn't want to botch his chances by failing to attend.

Without even realizing it, she had walked straight into the red light district in which Naruto lived. She sighed. She did it again; she let herself fall into a state of autopilot. Even though autopilot mostly ran on muscle memory, this showed that she visited him a lot. Err, visited him without him knowing.

Which meant that she was stalking him when he left his home daily in the afternoons.

'I could use his absence as an excuse to visit him. If he is there. What if he isn't? What if…"

And so she got caught up in doubt. Which soon lead to self doubt.

'What would I do if he doesn't want to see me?'

It was becoming too easy to fall into such a state of mind for her. While she was pressured to be a 'perfect hieress' for her clan, especially the elders, she got some constructive help from her mother as well as her father sometimes. She did not have any such ambition becoming the head of the clan, nor her sister. Her sister merely wanted to be the first of the hyuuga capable of encorporating elemental chakra. It's presumed impossible, but that's why Hanabi wanted to be the one to do it. She was essentially defiance. Neji was also considered to be a fallback heir, being born so close to the main branch as well as being a prodigy of the gentle fist style in more than five generations. But… he was particularly cold. He seemed to have some vendetta to everyone but his parents. Perhaps only he knew. Perhaps the cause of her shy personality and self doubt could be due in no small part to him.

Suddenly, she found herself in front of Naruto's apartment building.

Sigh. She had been on autopilot again.

 **Sunagakure, Kazekage's office.**

"… That description only goes to demonstrate how much he wishes to hide his true identity. So what did he do Hara-san?" The red-headed kazekage asked.

Hara looked the kazekage in the eyes. "I shall explain from when we first noticed him."

 **Flashback**

"Oi, Hara. Move like you've got some life in you. You're lagging behind."

"Yes senpai." Hara applied a little more chakra to his feet in an effort to keep up with the lead jounin of the squad. He was a late sleeper. He had barely woken up in time and readied himself to get to his mission briefing with the rest of the members of his squad. So it was no surprise to that his metabolism had not gotten up to speed yet, for his body 'assumed it was still sleeping hours'. (Sigh. Assume. Never do it folks.)

"Damn man. You're so slow! That's expected of a fresh chunin but the exams are over man."

"Shut your mouth Kouzi! You know that my ability to see in pitch black darkness was what helped us to win. You would have still been wandering around in that damn mountain in kumo!"

"Just pick up the pace."

Five minutes later of ninja sprinting, they stumbled across a man covered from head to toe in a strange cloak complete with a face mask and and hood covering the top of his head, shadowing his eyes.

Everyone slid to a stop and entered their respected stance. "Who are you and what are your reasons for being within our borders?" Suran, one of the lead jounin asked. He was a very intimidating looking character and he would not take foolishness or ignorance. Especially from a man who was a potential threat to suna. The man did not even have a hitai-ate.

"Name? I have many names. Reason? I'm just passing through." The man replied. "Do you stop to question everyone you see within the edges of your borders? I am who I am and I go where I please."

"So you had to visit the tropical paradise that is Suna?" Suran retorted sarcastically. He was growing impatient impatient with this man's vague answers. Even a spy would have given a fake name and purpose. But this man?

"Kouzi, search him for identification. If the man does not submit and becomes a threat, he will be treated as such."

Kouzi stepped forward confidently. The group of two jounin and three chunin should be enough to intimidate the man into submission. After all, one could tell rank based on their vest attributes. But the more he walked towards the man, the more he felt a pressure. Not killing intent. It was as if gravity had singled him out for special treatment. Five yards from the man and he could barely keep standing, let alone keep his head from rolling around on his neck muscles. The man was doing... something subtle to let him know he did not want to be searched. Kouzi was already regretting leaving the village and encountering this person.

"What's wrong Kouzi?" Suran shouted, seeing the man stop and hesitate for a full minute. Now he was wondering what the hell was wrong. Finally having enough, Suran stomped up up to Kouzi and savagely turned him around, only to discover a senbon needle sticking out of his forehead.

"He's been dead for half a minute. Hesitation can cost you your life. You either do or don't." The cloaked man said. He took out his necklace, looked at it, then sighed as he replaced it. "I have to get going soon." The man said with regret.

Suran, finally snapping out of his stupor, leapt back to his squad's position. "Attack!" He yelled. He flashed through some handseals and shouted. **"Futon: Ton'neringu-fu no jutsu!"** (Wind release: tunnelling wind technique). Suran quickly formed a spear and quickly threw it, aiming at the man's chest. The speed of the jutsu would ensure that there would be a gaping hole in his chest.

The man merely dropped into an Indian squat quickly in a great show of speed, allowing the spear to go on its merry way. The man then formed a single snake handseal and mumbled something. He reopened his hands to reveal a small red floating orb that grew in size, and soon washed over everyone in a glow of red light that soon disappeared.

"What was that supposed to do huh? Intimidate us?" Hara was not impressed with the jutsu.

The cloaked man looked at him and then disappeared.

"You will find out later." A voice sounded from behind him.

Then he felt a sharp hit to the back of his head, and he knew no more.

 **Flashback end**

"And when I woke up, I found everyone with slit throats, signs of battle and the man gone." Hara finished.

"This is indeed troubling. What do you think he meant by 'you will find out later.'?"

"No clue, Kazekage-sama."

"Needless to say, he shall be added to the bingo book, although funds in the treasury are low. Damn it all. The mission will have to be drafted to a new team. We can't afford to lose anymore face with our clients. You are excused Hara san."

Gratefully, Hara left and closed the door behind him. Making his way home, he unlocked his apartment and sat on his bed. He then closed his eyes and called out in his thoughts.

'Hello Hara.'

'Who are you?!'

'The man who took your reserves, memories and abilities, including your bloodline limit to see in absolute darkness.'

'Where am I?'

'You're in the hell that is my mind.'

 **With Hinata**

She had been standing as still as a statue with her hand poised to knock for the past ten minutes.

'What if he doesn't want to be disturbed?'

Every time she mustered enough confidence, she hesitated, bringing her confidence back to zero.

'Hmm. I'll just use the byakugan. If he's doing anything that seems important, I won't disturb him. If he's casual, I'll knock and request admittance.'

She formed her unique dojutsu handseal. "Byakugan!"

Her dojutsu immediately pinged into admission, with veins bulging around her eyes, enhancing her eyesight with the extra chakra.

'Hmm. That must be him in the bedroom on the bed. Is he sleeping? Maybe I should just leave.' But she looked on a little longer. Something felt... off. Naruto did NOT take afternoon naps. He was too hyperactive for that. Besides, he would have been training at this time. And why did he lay down in that position, akin to a dead man? It was as if he could be...

"Dead?! No!" With that that, all comfidence issues went out the window, hesitancy be damned.

She took a step back and rammed the door. The lock easily gave way out of the dry rotting door jamb but the privacy lock and chain held fast. She rammed it again and the lock came out with a piece of the door stuck on it. She rushed into the bedroom and gasped, seeing her crush lying stock still on the burnt-looking bed.

"...Naruto-kun..."

She was about to burst into tears when she noticed him take a small breath and exhale.

Now relieved, she became embarrassed to practically breaking and entering his home when he was only sleeping. She stood and waited a little longer, trying to match her breathing with his.

'Inhale...'

'...'

'...'

She released her air after another minute, not used to his present breathing rate.

He did not breath again for another two minutes.

'... Something's wrong. His breathing still much too slow even for sleeping.' She checked his pulse at his neck and timed it. She was now grateful for all those hours she spent in private lessons when she was younger. She had considered it wasted time. Until now.

His pulse was barely ten beats a minute and very faint.

Hinata was surprised. It was as if he was… hibernating, for lack of a better term. She immediately started to pace beside the bed. "What do I do, what do I do? Call someone? Who? Give him CPR? Mouth to mouth resuscitation?" She looked back to the object of her crush as a deep crimson blush crept up her neck into her face when her mind went into overdrive thinking of the implications.

And as sure as night follows day, her thinking of Naruto like that led to fainting.

Which she did.

 **Inside the Seal/Mindscape**

The Giant nine tailed fox demon looked down at the prostrate form of the boy in front of him. It had been twelve going on thirteen years since he was sealed. He could easily escape, what with Naruto relinquishing control over to him. But the truth was that he didn't care.

He wasn't a necessarily evil being, considering with his 'good chakra gone and now being composed of only the bad version' thing going on. He was a neutral being. He helped when he felt generous, destroyed entire landscapes when he was pissed but otherwise just kept to himself. Just because he was composed entirely of chakra, didn't mean he wasn't 'alive'. He had emotions, to think for itself and so on. Perhaps he even had a soul. What was a soul anyway? It was intangible and basically all things alive had one. What really counted was a being's mind. That was what he was working on.

Naruto's mind that is.

For three years, Naruto has had a seal suppressing the memories of his childhood. A recycle bin of sorts. The memories would have made him catatonic for life and soured him. Perhaps even making him mental.

But as any other trash can, there was a limit to what it could hold. But why not 'throw away' the memories? Naruto's 'abilities' forbade it, made that impossible. But right now, the memory suppressing seal was threatening Naruto's mental health, as well as his own. Naruto would go crazy, and the Kyuubi himself would just become chakra without a mind. Just random periods of behavior that would lack direction and purpose. So he was removing the seal permanently.

Finished.

" **Boy, it is done. It is time to awaken. How are you feeling?"**

Naruto's eyes exploded open.

"Never been better." He replied.

 **Well, that felt like a comfortable place to end this chapter. Heh Heh. I wonder how many of you smart alecks still** _ **assumed**_ **that Naruto had removed the seal, freeing the Kyuubi and dying? (Guffaws). Suppressing seal: Explained. Wished for more time: It's like punishment. He wanted to postpone the emotional pain. No one gets hurt: the Kyuubi would be using some youki chakra which had corrosive properties. New life: You will find out in chapter soon. Sigh, anyway Issues in Suna will soon come to a head while Naruto's abilities will come to fruition. Still, who the hell is that man? Just gotta keep reading!**

 **Sayonara.**


	8. Chapter 8

**How much cash do I have? (Searches pockets but turns up empty) Nope. I can't afford to get sued folks.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

 **(Sarcastic voice) Wow, what a surprise.**

 **8.**

She slowly came to, with her limpid eyes seeing only a blur. She blinked as her vision became focused, trying to get her bearings.

'That's not my bedroom ceiling.' She thought when she stared up above her.

"Are you awake now, Hinata-san?"

She looked around, searching for the owner of the voice all the while wondering where she was. The memory was behind a locked door of sorts and she stood before it, trying bunches of keys hoping one fits.

"Right here."

She leaned her head all the way back while lying down. She now saw Naruto sitting behind her head in a chair adjacent to the...couch she was in?

"Naruto-kun?!" She yelped, hurriedly getting up. She now remembered. Naruto seemed on the brink of death but now? He was as fit as a horse.

"I- I- I wa- was chec… visiting you." Immeadiately her fair complexion went for a scarlet one.

"Hmm. That's fair. So you broke down the door when I didn't answer it?" He queried, pointing at the damaged door.

"N- N- no. I g-g- got worried when I- I- I saw you on the bed not m- m- moving. I was c- c- concerned." She was now worried seeing his grim face.

"Was that before or after you broke down the door?" His tone was cold.

"I - I – I used my B-b-byakugan. Gomenasai for b-b-breaking the door and violating your privacy." She was worried that he was angry with her, seeing his expression.

Naruto was about to blow up.

"Heh heh heh. I got you Hinata." It started as a chuckle while he was serious, but he lost it when it turned into a giggle, then a guffaw, then a full on deep bellied laugh. Naruto was laughing his ass off, rolling on the ground in his mirth.

Hinata stared at him stupidly.

Having spent two minutes getting it out of his system, he stood up and cleared his throat. "Sorry for laughing at you Hinata. You were justified in your concern for me. The truth is," here he choked. "For someone to be concerned for me, let alone visit, besides old man Hokage or the Ichirakus, or even if it were them, it means a lot to me. Thank you Hinata…chan." He was so sincere, it was painful.

Hinata could hug herself in her joy. 'He used the affectionate with me. He likes me…" Outside of her head however, her facial complexion had flushed so much that one would have thought her whole body was that colour.

"Anyway, seeing that you're fine, thanks for coming by, hopefully next time I'll be able to be more hospitable." He escorted her frozen form to the door. "See you tomorrow. Gotta get ready for that test and all. See ya!" He closed the door behind her, leaving her out in the hallway. "Whew! Now to get started!" Little did he know was that she was still frozen.

'He called me Hinata-chan…'

She was going to be impersonating a statue for a while.

 **With Tenten**

"Are you alright Tenten-san?" Lee asked.

He recieved no answer.

"Tenten?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine Lee," she smiled, assuring her teamate that she was. Lee was satisfied.

Maito Gai was not.

Gai could tell that she must have had an emotional breakdown again for the third time in seven months. While it didn't affect her duties as the team's sole kunoichi, it would soon start taking a tole on her mental health as they returned, breaking it down like a fort under a steady assault. She might need professional help, or resign. Because every time she took a life, it made it worse. But if no one could help her professionally, perhaps she could find a kindred shoulder to cry on. Lee was out of the question.

'Neji, perhaps?'

He looked over to the 'stoic' Hyuuga. He seemed to have a permanent glare and growing-familiar scowl to go with it. He had seen family die to family in his clan because of the caged bird seal he himself wore on his forehead, but no one too close, like his mother or father. Besides, to get Neji to comfort Tenten? One probably had a better chance of seeing his eternal rival without his mask. Perhaps he could find someone later when they returned to the village when their mission ended.

But not now. Now was a time to accomplish what their mission dictated.

"Neji, use your byakugan to scout out the bandit camp. Tenten, prepare to give us long ranged support. Lee, when Neji completes counting them we are going to approach the west side through the forest canopy."

"Hai sensei." They had all gone into a more professional mode.

Neji began counting them including the ones in the tents while Tenten double checked her weapons.

'Hmm. All the kunai are loose in the holsters… scrolls easy to reach… the paper bombs… the bombs…' Her eyes glazed over while she remembered that fateful night…the explosions and the fire and all the blood...the corpses it ran from.

"…T...n…n."

"…Te…n…en."

"Tenten!" Maito Gai hissed loudly, shaking her by her shoulders.

A 'Huh?' was her first intelligent response coming back to reality.

"You started staring into space, muttering something about fire and bombs and whatnot. You're remembering 'that night' again, aren't you," he pressed.

"N-No sensei. I was…" she trailed off.

"Remembering three years ago." Gai finished with a sigh. "Tenten, it seems to me that you would rather remember that night instead of the times before that. All the happier times. But instead you choose to dwell on that hellish crisis."

"But sensei…"

"No buts, Tenten." He interrupted. "I mean what I say, exactly how I said it. I don't want to sound sympathetic but you need to move on, and stop reminiscing about that unyouthful time. You need to be more emotionally stable because your psychological test is in a month that determines your future as a kunoichi. That is, if you remain one or not. It doesn't look good considering that you froze just by checking your equipment. What if you froze up while you were using it? You could get killed by an enemy just from that single mistake. I am not telling you to kill your emotions, or to temporarily suppress them. I merely wish for you to keep them in check, at least while you're out in the field. I hope we never have to have conversation again. Is that clear?" Gai stopped his lecture and looked over his genin. It seems that she had listened, or disobeyed and temporarily suppressed her emotions. He reasoned. There is no proof that she had recalled her painful past earlier. Her jaw was steeled and her brows were even. Her expression was as hard as a rock.

"Hai, sensei. I won't let you down Gai-sensei."

"That's impossible Tenten." Gai replied.

Neji, seeing that they were done, he tried to get Maito's attention. "Gai-sensei. I have completed my count."

"Yes Neji. How many have you counted?" Gai asked.

"The head count is thirty six…" Neji was grim.

"Hmm. Not so bad. Roughly nine opponents each." Gai reasoned.

"For forty people." Neji finished.

"What?!"

"Over there." Neji pointed.

Guy looked to where his Hyuuga genin pointed. From what he could see, he could see bodies next to a table that was bloody to one side. He was furious. He could only presume that this was what the mission entailed. These bandits have been terrorizing a nearby town that the client mayor ran. Apparently, these bandits must have been kidnapping people and decapitating them, sending threats that they wanted money or they wouldn't stop. Neji was grim. Lee was horrified. Gai was angry.

But Tenten was disheveled; the temporary wall she had built around her emotions had crumbled, leaving her vulnearable once more.

Gai calmed himself down as well as Lee. But as he looked to Tenten and she had already put her emotionless mask back on.

"Very well. We will proceed as planned. However, Neji will flank around to the north, create bunshins to intimidate them. Tenten will throw bomb tags from here into the southernmost of the camp to continue to drive them to the east against the cliff wall. Once they are there, we'll coverge together and engage them, while they are boxed in. is that clear?" Gai stated, looking over all the members of his team, especially Tenten, looking her over for any sort of weakness. He was satisfied, seeing none. None that were obvious, that is. He was still worried though.

"Hai Gai-sensei."

"Let us go then." Gai started ninja sprinting with Lee and Neji, leaving Tenten alone with her thoughts.

'Does he expect me to just forget my parents and my childhood? My innocence? He doesn't know what I have been through, my own private hells. He never had to go through what I did when he was at my present age. To see parents and people who care for you die right in front of you because **of** you! He doesn't know...'

"...Dynamic Entry!..."

No mistaking it. Only one person could shout those words from afar and make them carry like that.

"Well, time to get to work," she muttered. She walked up the tree to the top branch and hid in the thick foliage. From her elevated position she could see that Guy and Lee were kicking two bandits in the chest simultaneously to the right of her location. She looked straight ahead and could see Neji throw a couple kunai that took two bandits in the throat before creating a few more of the deceiving image bunshins that leapt out the tree line, further intimidating the criminals into retreating in the most logical direction.

The southeast.

Quickly, she took out three kunai with bomb tags attached and threw them right at the edges of the forest where she was, one in the south, one in the south east and one to east south east with the original explosion igniting the trees there. A few were caught in the blast, two died immediately and the last one crawled out of the fire sporting badly burnt flesh and a bloody stump for a right leg. The resulting fire drove the already panicking men to the east wall like lambs to the slaughter.

Except for one.

The 'bandit' jumped over the fire neatly and grinned at the location where he knew her to be. He then turned his back and started walking off casually, taunting her to try and attack him while she was in his blind spot.

Tenten gritted her teeth and looked to her teammates. By now all the remaing bandits were penned in at the wall, putting up a fight and Neji, Gai and Lee were trying to incapacitate them. She looked back to the man and her team.

It was a tough decision, but she made it none the less.

She dropped out of the tree on slightly bent knees, landing neatly with three kunai at the ready. She threw them quickly at the retreating figure of the man only for him to turn around at the last second, dodging the first two and catching the third at the grip and chucking it back at her even faster than she threw it. The kunai buried itself in a log she had been fortunate to substitute with in time.

"Hmm. A substitution? Heh. You coward, come out here! I'll show you how a real ninja fights!" The man shouted. "Tou-san is going to cut your pretty little head off!" He then felt his waist, apparently searching for something.

"Damn, must have dropped it when the other ninja started to take the camp," he muttered under his breath.

"Well, never mind that oversized butcher's knife. This one will do me just fine." He drew out a sturdy six inch knife with saw blade like properties to it. The zig-zagged edges glinted dangerously in the sunlight.

There was dried blood all over the hilt.

He was met with silence as the kunoichi refused to answer with any sort of comment.

From her unseen hiding place, the bun haired girl studied her enemy for the first time. He seemed... eccentric for lack of a better word. He had the skills of a low to mid chunin caliber but he was dressed like a common bandit. Why was he with all those highway men?

'Look at all the dried blood on his shirt.' She thought back to the bloody table she saw. 'It's him. It has to be him. He was the executioner. He's the one who decapitated those people. He must have tied their limbs to the corners with their heads off the edge to allow for him to easily chop their heads off.' She was now frightened as she had realized the truth. This man dispatched so callously and mercilessly and here he was threatening to do the same thing to her with a saw toothed knife. That meant it wasn't going to be a clean stroke.

Oh no.

He was going to drag it back and forth through her neck until her head only remained hanging by a piece of flesh, until it fell off...

'No. Get it together, Tenten. I can't afford to panic and get sloppy. Think. He's a bloodthirsty bandit of chunin level, probably a nukenin with experience to boot. I can't take him on by myself, I'm just a genin. I need to somehow signal Gai-sensei to help. But how?'

"Found you..." The unsettling whisper said.

The man had found her!

'QUICK! KAWARIMI NO JUTSU!'

In a split second she was in the tree opposite of the clearing seeing the man dig his knife viciously into a log she had substituted with. As she tried to slow her rapid brathing rate, she saw that the man again turned his gaze to her tree, as if he knew that she was there.

Her heart rate still continued to race as she thought.

'Shit! Is he a sensor or something?'

She grabbed a weapon scroll and unsealed her remaining bomb tags, wrapped them up together in a wad and activated them discreetly.

'Well, here goes everything. If this doesn't kill him, at least it will get Gai-sensei's attention. She prepared herself for a kawarimi and jumped out of the tree she was in.

"Out in the open, now!" She shouted, trying to hide the frightened tone in her voice. The man dropped out of his tree and released his killer intent, further scaring the poor girl.

"Heh heh. You think you're brave? For all that, you have all the bravery of a mouse. I can practically smell your cowardice rolling off you. Come over here. I'll make your death quick." He said slyly.

Almost immediately, her feet satrted walking towards the man as if in a trance.

'Huh?'

"That's right. Keep coming. Don't stop. Tou-san's going to make the pain all go away..." he said in a sympathetic sounding voice.

"Wha…?! Why can't I stop?"

Somehow, a part of her knew this was wrong, that this man was about to be her killer. But another part of her believed him... wanting to believe that he could help her.

'No! What is this?! Shit! Genjutsu! But how do I break it when I can't even move my arms to create the ram seal? Wait! Pain!'

She quickly bit her lower lip hard, drawing blood. Almost immediately, the belief that he cared for her was gone and her arms were back under her control but...

"Why am I still walking towards him? "She threw her weapons at him, kunai and shuriken. It didn't matter. He just danced around them, her efforts to hurt him and hopefully break his control over her went for nought. "Gai-sensei, anyone, help!" Tears started to stream down her cheeks as she believed her time had come. She was convinced that she was now going to be with her dead parents.

But she suddenly started thinking with stark clarity.

'But Masato **is** a tou-san to me. And I have Asami-niisan and all my other siblings in the orphanage. Everyone there cares for me. I'm not gonna go just yet! Not without a fight at least!"

She brought her hands together and formed the ram seal. "Kai!"

She continued walking towards him.

She gritted her teeth and almost slowed to a standstill her now dying chakra levels. She kept up the pressure on her network, sweating now in her effort. Suddenly, she released it, like an overflowing dam.

"Kai!"

She continued walking towards him.

"Hah hah hah! You think you can break my most powerful genjutsu with some mediocre release method?! You're going to die here little girl. Children shouldn't be running around playing ninja. This world is only for stone cold killers. Not kids!" He laughed hysterically. "No one's coming for you girlie. Just come and take it like a real ninja would. You should have gone to some dumb civilian school instead. Being a ninja is not fun and games." He cackled as he spoke. He was content in letting her come to him. He liked, no, enjoyed seeing her face go pale in terror. He was truly a psychotic individual.

She balled her fists. She was now ten yards from the man. What to do? Suddenly, she remembered her roll of tags. Well, better him than her, or him and her instead of just her, she mused.

'But how much time left? Fuck, just throw it Tenten!"

She balled it and threw it at him as hard as she could but the paper held no real weight and it fell three feet shy of the man, ending the journey by rolling to his feet.

His eyes widened in realization that they were explosive tags. "Shit!"

Almost immeadiatley, his hold of over the girl's legs had dispersed, making the girl sigh in thankfulness, before gathering her bearings. She quickly palmed her last kunai and threw it; aiming at his ankles. In the man's panicked state, as he was pivoting on his leg to flee, the kunai caught him just above his heel, slicing his Achilles tendon, handicapping his movement. The girl not sticking around to see if it caught him or not had already started running away. She did **not** want to stick around to find out the blast radius for a dozen b-ranked explosive tags was.

Leaving the crippled man to stare wide eyed at the tags, waited for the end to come knowing that he couldn't escape, suddenly saw a blinding flash of white.

Then black.

Tenten was still running when the explosion occurred and the blast caught up to her. It lifted her form and continued moving her beyond her control, finally driving her into the dirt head and shoulders first.

Then she knew no more.

 **With Naruto**

'Is she still there?'

" **Quite likely. She probably is."**

'What do you mean probably? I meant sense for her."

" **Didn't have to. I can smell her scent. It's still strong at the door. It's coming in because the door is slightly ajar. Not shut. Remember that she broke it down?"**

'Anyway, do you think she still being here will disturb what we're going to do?' Naruto asked.

" **Not at all. Now get back in here."**

Naruto complied and went back to his bed. Lying down stock still again, he closed his eyes and released his mind from all distractions. He soon felt a 'tug' on his psyche and he gave into it. Reopening his eyes, he was now greeted to the now-familiar sight of the sewer that was his mindscape. He wandered the tunnels with no general direction and soon found himself in front of the great cage with the nine tailed fox demon behind it.

" **Took you long enough. Now let's get started."** Came the Kyuubi's welcome.

"Before we start though, my forehead feels like it's burning again. Can you take a look?" the boy asked, rubbing his forehead. In fact, his entire head felt like it was on fire. One that threatened to take over his entire body.

" **What, like three years ago?"** The Kyuubi was concerned, but at the same time excited. It was like a scratch ticket. He wanted to know what Naruto would get now in addition to what he had now.

"Yeah." Came the boy's reply.

" **Come closer."**

The boy stepped into the cage and stepped onto the Kyuubi's palm/paw. He then lifted the boy up to his eye level and looked at the boy with an observing gaze. The boy trembled a bit, being in discomforting position, being caught under the great fox's scrutiny up close.

" **From what I could tell, the kanji aligning to the arrow says 'focus.' I wonder…"**

"Focus, huh. You think it means a mental ability?" the boy asked.

" **Most likely."** Came the kyuubi's answer. **"If it does mean mental though, it is no letdown. While not as strong as 'memory'… wait. What is the shopkeeper's name?"** The kitsune suddenly asked.

"Yoshiro Suhan." The boy answered.

" **What's today's date?"**

"Yesterday was the 28th so today's the 29th." The boy's eyes then widened considerably. "Of course. The suppressing seal is off." The boy gave a wide grin but soon frowned. "I remember…"

" **Forgive and forget is once again impossible in your case, eh boy? You're now more mature to deal with those memories anyway. At least you don't need to walk around with that kami-forsaken notepad anymore, or having to keep asking me for the damn date. Also, 'understanding' seems to active again. You're not as slow as a snail anymore."**

"I'm still taking offense to all of this you know."

 **"Let it be. Do you remember the school's lectures?"**

"Yeah. I can. What I was awake for anyway." The boy jested.

The monstrous kitsune put down the boy and snorted. **"Not the time. The exam is in two days. we'll do the killing intent intolerance next week. You must study… heh heh,** _ **read**_ **the teachers books tomorrow. You won't forget it at all anyway. But I must say, these abilities are strange. There could be more of them waiting to be unlocked; this is an unsual bloodline limit. I have never seen nor heard of it before, and I have lived for centuries upon centuries. It could have been created in you, or it came into existence just a generation or two before you. Such simple gifts, yet the potential is virtually unlimited. You may go. I must rest from my efforts from the seal removal,"** the Kyuubi yawned and settled down with his head on his hands/paws. (Damn. Still don't know what to call it. :c )

"Kyuubi…" the boy said hesitantly.

" **Hmm?"** The kitsune said tiredly, half opening a bloodshot eye.

"…Thanks. You know… for everything. I'm gonna make sure that we find him and end him. I owe you that much, at the very least."

" **Yeah, yeah. Sure. You're welcome and all that emotional shit. Now let me rest."**

The boy disappeared out of the mindscape.

" **I never could understand that boy. Maybe I need some of his 'understanding' ability."** The Kyuubi muttered under his breath.

 **Outside the Seal**

Naruto opened his eyes and waited for them to adjust to his overhead light. He sighed tiredly with a hint of frustration in it.

"Yeah. I remember… especially when I got 'memory.' Is it a blessing, or a curse...?"

 **Flashback**

"There's the fucking demon!"

"Kill the little shit!"

In no time at all mob of fifteen began chasing the eight year old boy. He pumped his legs furiously. Suddenly, his legs were pelted by the shrapnel of a bottle shattering into pieces nearby. His feet stung with the sharp pain as he ran. Some of them must have cut him, embedding themselves in his flesh. But he couldn't stop now, he had to get to jiji's tower!

"He's making for the tower!"

"The tower?"

Hearing this, eleven of the mobbers fell out of step with the four that continued. If he was going there, they weren't anxious to get punished by the Hokage.

"I'm done. I'll get him tomorrow."

"Yeah. Me too."

"You dumb fucks! We could silence him before he reaches the tower now."

"Not today man."

"Your loss."

The four kept running and finally caught up to the boy when he turned through an alley to use for a shortcut to get there quicker. The tiring boy was running when a sharp blow connected to his head, knocking him down to the ground. The boy felt the back of his head and his hand came away red… and screamed.

"We're gonna silence a demon tonight," the man said rather sinisterly as another kicked him powerfully in his gut by the toes. The boy's scream was cut short as all the air was pushed out of his lungs. He collapsed unto the ground, his side paining him unbearably. The boy cried and wept. For so long, his beatings had come and gone, but this one, he was crying; thinking he was going to die from this one. He was going to die now to these men, and no would care. He had no more protectors. They had simply stopped coming to his aid. They used to appear and help and disappear, but now... he was going to die.

Rino felt some satisfaction when he felt some ribs break under his kick. But he still felt the need to make the demon's incarnate suffer more. He was sure his brother next to him felt the same way.

"You fucking bastard, you're gonna die for everyone you ever killed tonight." Horino snarled. He lifted the the boy by his collars with one hand and punched him in the face repeatedly. Especially around his eyes. The boy's flesh above his eye split open and bled heavily into it and stung it, further adding to his pain.

Horino, growing tired of petty hits started to slam the boy against walls, eager to injure him more. He then threw the boy to the ground, and the two mobbers and his brother descended upon him like vultures. The only thing different was that carrion birds went for dead flesh, but Naruto was almost at that point anyway.

Rino, having enough, he withdrew a knife from his waistband and plunged it down at the helpless eight year old boy who saw the knife and shut his eyes. But with his eyes closed and with no mental leverage, lost his battle with consciousness.

 **Flashback end**

"But someone intervened. But who? Hmm. I'll just ask the old man. He'll probably know. If he tells me, of course. Not the beating around the bush like he used to. He didn't tell me about Kyuubi. I had to find out about that myself." The whiskered lad decided. He then made his way to the bathroom and took off his goggles and looked over his still-aching forehead.

There were three concentric circles there. Two small arrows pointing to the east and west passed through the first circle. They had kanji in the circle at the back end of the arrow that said 'understanding' and 'memory' respectively. But there was a new one that the boy beheld.

There was an arrow that passed through the first and second circle.

The kanji was 'Focus'.

 **With Tenten**

"Gah!" She suddenly sprung up, only to see her comrades asleep.

Except for Neji.

He was sitting by the fire, poking at a straying piece of firewood. The dry wood fed the hungry flame and the wood crackled, sending sparks flying up and around him. But the branch Hyuuga never once blinked, in spite of the event.

"Welcome back to the waking world, Tenten."

She took note of her surroundings for the first time. "Wha…Night?"

"Indeed. You have been unconscious for nine hours. It's now late at night and it's now my watch," the stoic boy replied to her unintelligent question.

"What happened?"

"You were probably knocked unconscious by your explosives. From where we were fighting the bandits, we could see a massive explosion. This got Gai-sensei worried enough to open his first gate to finish off the bandits. To me, it seems there were a few chunin in the group. When we were done fighting, we rushed to check on you, only to find pieces of what appeared to be a man." He snorted. "Or what used to be one. But you however, we found you lying face down on the ground. Three feet next to you was a rather sturdy tree. If you were knocked into that tree, you would have broken your neck and cracked your skull open. A concussion at best. Needless to say, Gai-sensei was very upset. Would you care to explain what transpired?" He enquired.

She told him everything that mattered. From when she saw him up until the explosion. But she was careful not to mention her emotional state during her encounter, or her thoughts.

"And that's what happened."

"Interesting. The one bandit we interrogated described that man as the person who chopped of those people's heads. We saw the weapon used. It was a single zigzag edged blade that was four inches wide and eighteen inches long. A rather brutish and barbaric weapon. Well," he stood up and stretched. "It's time for Lee's shift. Would you wake him while I retire?" Neji requested.

"Sure, Neji. Goodnight."

She went and did as he requested while he crawled into his sleeping bag.

"Goodnight Tenten."

She turned around to look back at him but he had already turned his back to her. She returned to her task but Lee wouldn't budge.

'Well, guess I'll do it. I'm fully rested anyway.'

And so she did.

 **And done. My longest chapter yet. Sorry for the late update folks. I had a blackout in my parish Monday. (Parish-Jamaica State-USA). So to make up for it, instead of the average 2.3 k chapter, you get 5 k. aren't you a lucky bunch! If you want to see a visual description of Naruto's 'Symbol,' reference to the story's cover image. If you don't like it, too bad. I said before that I'm no artist. Just a fanfic writer. Well, anyway, you got a peek at Naruto's abilities. This will be a unique bloodline limit, I promise you. It's just that sometimes, the little things get overlooked for overpowered doujutsus and all that. During the war, I wondered if the show was called 'Madara'.**

 **Hell. No.**

 **I don't want suggestions for abilities; I got them already planned out. You will not be disappointed folks. Until next time,**

 **Sayonara.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Lawyer 1:** He's going to say it!

 **Lawyer 2:** Shhh.

 **MRay4TW:** Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!

 **Lawyer 1:** Shit! Thought this would be the time. These fanfic writers are really pissing me off.

 **Lawyer 2:** Yeah. Damn. We need to make a living too, you know! We need to get a case! I'm almost broke!

 **MRay4TW:** Get the hell out of here before **I sue you** for trespassing!

(Clears throat) Anyway, here's chapter 9.

 **9.**

The charcoaled-eyed youth had woken up a bit surly. He had planned find out what the dobe had hidden under his goggles, or what was important about it. But Naruto had failed to attend the Academy.

'Was he avoiding Iruka? No. that's stupid. Even in the past when he pranked Iruka in the morning he would still return to class in the afternoon. Why? The genin exam is in two days. He has to come today, if not tomorrow. Or he'll fail. Yes. Today's the day. I'll find out, one way or another.'

Even he himself didn't know why he was letting himself think or obsess over something so trivial. But the academy was humdrum. He suspected that he was at the top not only of his prestigious clan, but also because he practiced the most when he was at home. He was the only one, save for a few like Shino and Kiba. He was probably practicing his clan's taijutsu all the time, which would explain his dismal grades. But the tests were also tied in with practical knowledge, like shuriken throwing angles. That's why he could be at the top.

Just by training.

He went about his hygienic duties and prepared his breakfast. While eating, he thought of the final exam. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to read over a book or two. Just in case he got a couple of irrelevant history lessons. What was he supposed to do, throw useless history facts instead of shuriken? That was sure to kill… that man. But he read anyway, giving a sigh.

'…And so he fell to Hashirama Senju and became the greatest traitor to Konoha. What a load of shit. How is this 'mokuton' supposed to stop the power the sharingan holds? If Madara had become the Shodaime then that would have ensured that Konoha stayed on top. Maybe even leaving behind techniques that could control the Kyuubi, instead of killing it after it razed the village 12 years ago.'

He finished up and walked outside his house to make his way from the Uchiha compound to the academy. Along the way, he was greeted as usual.

"Ohayou, Sasuke-san!"

"Kon-nichi wa, Sasuke-sama."

This was the typical greeting from the civilian Uchiha. They could not reproduce the prized sharingan that was sought after by the village. They disliked him, he presumed. (Presume, assume. Tsk, tsk.) The villagers in general kept calling him the last loyal Uchiha; As if the civilian ones didn't even exist. His brother had simply murdered all that were capable of using or reproducing the sharingan. Those civilians mattered somewhat to Sasuke. At least for now anyway. Until his own sharingan activated, he was one of them. He would play along.

"Ohayou." He answered.

As soon as his sharingan activated, his brother was going to be in a whole lot of trouble.

 **With Naruto, 6 am.**

"497…498…499…500!"

He pushed off one last time off his hands into a squat, then rolled backwards over the lateral side if gs right arm. In the final moment of the occurrence, he back-flipped neatly, landing on the very edge of the roof of his apartment complex.

"Perfect!"

" **And that's that. Tomorrow's the exam. What are your plans for the day? I'm sure you don't expect to just walk up to the teacher and ask politely for his notes, do you?"**

'Actually, that's exactly what I expected to do.' The boy sweat dropped. 'Anyway, I've been thinking…'

" **You? Think? Didn't I warn you about how dangerous that is for your health?"**

Sigh. Once again, he was acting like a pain in the ass.

'I have 'understanding' again. Thank Kami. I can't believe I acted like such an idiot for years. When I had that seal on, it was like taking a pill to temporarily cure a bad thing even though the pill carries a terrible side effect.'

" **Indeed. The average IQ is 100. But with your abilities, your IQ shot up to 300. I didn't even know that was possible. You even entered the mindscape almost as soon as you felt like it. 'Focus' seems mediocre at first, but now I'm thinking of the possibilities. You could even perfect 'mind over matter.' To think, you could be tortured and you would be able to whistle through it all, merely by having your concentration elsewhere."**

'Yeah. True. But I don't intend to get tortured anytime soon. Anyway, I've been thinking about the genin exams.'

" **Go on."** The Kyuubi was curious.

'It all comes to 200.'

" **Excuse me?"** The great fox was confused. That did **NOT** happen often.

'Exam results. Think about it. It all comes to 200. In the exams, they determine team placements by combined score. They place the top two of the class with the bottom of the class. It's like a sum to 11. 1 plus 10 equals 11. 2 plus 9 equals 11. 3 plus 8 equals 11 and so on.'

" **I understand. The top two best in the class plus the last is like adding 100 plus 100 plus zero. As it gets closer to the middle, you would see something like 90 plus 90 plus 20 or 70 plus 70 plus 60. A sum to 200. In other words, Sasuke plus Sakura plus you equals… shit."** The Kyuubi now realized what his container was driving at.

'Yeah. It worries me too. But think about it. We could use this knowledge to manipulate who we could want as a team.' Naruto was growing excited, but his mind did not wander thinking of the possibilities.

Naruto went about his normal hygienic activities while he kept up the discussion. 'Let's see. Using numbers, without counting those ordinary civilian ninjas'. They have nothing notable. They all average out each other. Hmm. Sasuke, 95. Sakura, 95. Shino, 90. Hinata, 90. Ino, 80. Choji, 80. Shikamaru, maybe 30 or 40. Kiba, 20. Me, 10." Naruto snorted while Kyuubi laughed out loud.

" **You had it coming, boy. What with falling asleep and truancy in the mornings and whatnot."**

'You know it wouldn't have made sense anyway. My memory sucked at the time."

" **True. But you could have taken notes."**

'We're straying from the issue.' By now, Naruto had donned his new outfit. 'It's safe to say that that I, the Uchiha and Haruno will be a team. Inuzuka, Aburame and Hyuuga will be on another and the last team will be a repeat of InoShikaCho, being comprised of Yamanaka, Nara and Akimichi. Hmm. Let's see. The members of InoShikaCho are out. Besides, one's perpetually lethargic; one needs to constantly eat to store fat and has no stamina to support his weight and Ino…' He grimaced. 'Gives blonds a bad name.'

" **Like you?"**

He ignored the jab at his intelligence. 'I don't want the stuck up Uchiha on my team, or the girl who beats up on me everyday. I even used the affectionate with her. Ugh. I must have been retarded with the seal on. That leaves Kiba, Shino and Hinata.'

" **Go for the Hyuuga. She visited you so she probably likes you enough to visit you when no one else would."** The kitsune did not mention that the girl was infatuated with him though. Let him figure it out. His brain was practically the size of three villages anyway. He would simply count the days it took him before he realized. Starting with today.

'True. That leaves Inuzuka and Aburame. The Aburame seems to be the most mature and established out of all of us. Smart and strong. He is a good choice. Kiba, he would probably be constantly fighting for dominance like his clan. They act like dogs, fighting to be the alpha. They imbibe it from their mother's milk or something. He would be the easiest to manipulate, or the easiest to cheat out of a team.'

' **Seems I'm on 97. I'll soon cash it in.' "Sounds like a plan. Well, get going. Follow your own maxim. 'A job is half done once it's begun.' You will have to talk to the mutt before the day is out."**

He grabbed his goggles and strapped it on to his forehead, concealing the symbol. "Yeah. That's right, dattebayo! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, new and improved!"

He rushed out the door and stopped it up with some paper in the door jamb.

'I really have to get the door repaired later. Thieves could just walk right in.' He mused.

" **What do you have worth stealing?"** To which Naruto just sighed.

After having ramen for breakfast at Ichiraku's who gawked at his clothing, he completed his journey to the Academy. Having arrived early, he stopped at the institution's library and picked up a book about history and made his way to his class.

He only encountered Mizuki preparing exams for tomorrow. The silver haired man noticed the boy's entry, but not who he was. He did not want to attract attention to his particular identity so he grunted out his pleasantries to the teacher, who replied with an 'Ohayou,' being curt. Naruto sat in his seat, opened his book and read while he waited for his classmates to arrive.

 **Classroom, 8:55**

By now, they were two books beside the reading boy and he was finishing the third.

That which was a dictionary.

'Never again. I won't be a fool any longer. Ignorance may be bliss but knowledge is power. Stupidity be damned.'

He finally finished the book and snapped it satisfyingly.

'Done. Now to get these back.' He returned the books to their respectful places in the school's library and returned to his seat and put his head on the desk, just in time for everyone to file in at the same time, courtesy of Iruka telling them to when he arrived at 9 am daily. But the students saw the boy sitting in the class already. That was strange. Normally, everyone would remain outside until class begun, a postponement of sorts. If he was there already, he was enthusiastic about learning.

Weird.

"Hey, new guy! What's your name?" Kiba asked loudly.

"Troublesome. Kiba, leave him alone. He's got the right idea, though." A certain Nara yawned before making his way to his seat and placing his head on his desk as well.

Naruto raised his head.

Everyone gasped.

Naruto had shaved his hair to a lower, more manageable level, while still retaining its spikiness. He now wore black anbu-style pants that were ankle length, revealing grey shinobi sandals. He also wore a long-sleeved midnight blue shirt that was zipped right up a close fitting neck that had a bandanna around it. The shirt also had a hood that was currently down. In addition he had a twenty-one inch tanto (the handle was five inches with a single palm grip) on his back in an angle that positioned the handle of the blade over his right shoulder. He also had black gloves that had flimsy but strong bands of steel that extended from the palm up the fingers to the tips. The look was complimented by a holster of some sort that had a four inch cylindrical sheathe that had a three and a half inch handle. In fact, the only thing that Naruto retained from his old outfit were his goggles. It spoilt the new look somewhat, but not much.

"…Naruto… is that you?" Iruka was stupefied, the students we're shocked, an Aburame and an Uchiha were silent and the Hyuuga blushed.

"Sure Iruka-sensei, it's me." The boy answered. Now hearing the boy's voice, Mizuki looked up for the first time from his paperwork and observed the development. "What's that damn demon brat up to now," he muttered under his breath. "Naruto! Nice outfit! Finally, you decided to have mercy on our eyes by getting rid of the eyesore of a jumpsuit you owned. What inspired you to wear these clothes and get that tanto?" Mizuki asked cheerfully.

"I decided to… repair my faults, Mizuki-sensei," the boy replied vaguely.

Iruka was surprised. It was as if Naruto had matured five years in his single day away from school. He still retained his eccentricity, but the facts were there. New clothes, explained his situation in six words, wasn't being excitable. This was a brand new Naruto.

"Hah! Look at him, trying to act all tough. Still can't even fight anyone worth a damn." Kiba laughed scornfully. Akamaru, the boy's companion dog on his head, barked.

Naruto frowned a little but soon let a smirk dominate his features. 'Heh Heh. Hey Kyu, I just found a way to manipulate the 'Inu' here. It's convoluted, yet simple. It can't lose!'

" **What is it?"** The fox was now interested. Naruto was becoming increasingly clever and sly, just like him. But the day when Naruto's intelligence exceeded his might be soon upon him.

'Think. He's very arrogant, like most Inuzuka. The Inuzuka are taijutsu specialists, like the Hyuuga. If he loses a Taijutsu match, he'll try to mend his pride by investing all his time to improve on it only, so he could win a rematch. He won't study for the written exam so he'll fail that. Even if he gets perfect marks in taijutsu and the academy three…'

" **He'll still barely pass, but in dead last."** / 'He'll still barely pass, but in dead last.' They finished at the same time.

" **I'm proud. I would have tried to do something more sly and painful, but you do something less underhanded that will also teach that mutt a lesson. Why the hell did we suppress your abilities in the first place, anyway? You're a genius!"**

'Yeah yeah. Now to cut him down to size.'

"Is that so? How about a taijutsu match then?" the boy asked the Inuzuka.

"Who do you think you're talking to, dead last?" Kiba jested. The other students now began laughing at the whiskered boy (Besides the usual three), boosting the Inuzuka's ego.

"I'm talking to an Inuzuka mutt with dog breath. Or is he turning into a coward?" Naruto now turned the students against Kiba, who was getting angrier with each peal of laughter.

"Say Iruka-sensei, it's alright, isn't it? It'll help us prepare for tomorrow and you weren't gonna teach anything today just before the exam, were you?" Naruto asked.

"No Naruto. Just revision. But I still don't approve." Iruka remarked with a resigned groan.

"Hmm. I say let them go at each other. Can't last longer than fifteen minutes. So long as they pay attention in class for the rest of the day, I have no qualms." Mizuki gave out his opinion. 'Heh, shouldn't last more than fifteen _seconds_. Inuzuka is going to rip the little shit to shreds, especially now since he's angry.' He thought.

"Alright. I guess those are the terms. Do you agree?" Iruka asked.

The boys both replied. "Hai, Iruka-sensei."

"Very well."

 **Outside, the taijutsu area.**

The students surrounded the sparring circle. The Uchiha pushed his way to the front. While he wouldn't admit it, he was eager to see if his questionable theories on Naruto were true. Hinata activated her byakugan to see through the crowd while the bug user had his bugs relaying the match information to him.

Naruto handed his tanto to Shikamaru, mouthing to him to keep it for him. He then took his place on the mat, where Kiba was doing stretches. "Ready mutt?"

"Grrr…"

"Naruto, what about that?" Iruka pointed at the holster peeking from behind Naruto.

"What about it?"

"…Taijutsu match... You know, hand to hand."

"It's in case Akamaru intervenes." Naruto said shortly.

"The gloves…?"

"Claws."

"Akamaru is his ninken. Kiba was also born with the ability of the claws from his nails."

"Tools." Naruto retorted.

"Excuse me?" Iruka was confused.

"They are all tools which assist him. The Uchiha's sharingan, the Hyuuga's Byakugan, The Aburame's insects. They are all tools which assist them, as are my weapons. However I'll concede the gloves, but only until I see claws. It will be hand to hand only, as is the nature of Taijutsu." Naruto explained.

"As if I need Akamaru or my claws to beat the likes of you!" the Inuzuka called.

Iruka was shocked. Naruto had defended himself eloquently and since when he knew what 'concede' meant? The biggest word Naruto was supposed to know was his own name. The first one, that is. The last name, by exaggeration, might be a bit of a stretch.

"What does 'concede' mean?" Iruka tested.

"It means to 'unwillingly acknowledge another's ideas that contradict yours.'"

Iruka gave up with a sigh.

Naruto seeing Kiba finally settle into his pouncing stance went into his own. He stood sideways to Kiba, positioning his left foot facing forward towards him with his right foot behind him, pointing to the right. Most of his weight seemed to rest on the left leg; also, he stood mostly on his toes and his outstep while his arms were loose, hanging a bit limp. The students were all thinking that it was not the academy's stance. Some said it looked weak, some said Naruto made it up and still others laughed.

Honestly,Mizuki was a bit nterested in the stance, but was far more interested in the coming beat down. He stepped forward and started the match by swiping down his hand.

"Hajime!"

Kiba, deciding to end the match quickly, sprinted at his opponent, thoroughly intending to knock Naruto out with only one punch. That'd teach him not to overstep his place.

Naruto angled his head to the side and caught the offensive arm and pulled on it, adding his opponent's running momentum, pulling Kiba past him. While he passed him, he stuck his left foot in the way, tripping him.

Kiba face planted.

"Arrg!" The students laughed at him.

He jumped back up unto his feet, seething. He had been careless.

Naruto was stoic and that only served to piss him off more.

He threw punch after punch at him, kick after kick, each being countered and him being thoroughly embarrassed with each passing one, as well as growing tired.

Finally, he decided to kick Naruto 'below the belt,' aiming for his groin. Naruto, seeing that he wasn't going to give up, decided to go on the offensive. He sidestepped the kick and delivered his own kick to the back of Kiba's leg behind his knee, point driving upwards.

Gasping in pain, he abandoned the failed kick, holding his leg. Naruto didn't give him a chance to recuperate; kicked away Kiba's pained leg, delivered two quick punches to his side and one to his gut. Kiba tried to yell in pain, but all his air was pushed out of him. With his head about to hang down, Naruto delivered a powerful haymaker to his chin that made his head snap backwards in a hurry, lifting him up off of his feet, landing on his back.

Suffice to say, Kiba got knocked the fuck out.

Naruto, now done, looked around at the crowd of students, as if daring someone to say something he didn't like.

 **Well. I guess that's it. Wanted to leave the reactions and the exam for next chapter. Hey, after chapter 10, his life as a ninja starts. The chapter will be a milestone come Monday.**

 **As for the bloodline. It is original. Some of the attributes like memory (sharingan copy to memory) are coincidental. Besides, I think it only applies to jutsus. The symbol in his forehead reminded a reviewer of Kaguya's third eye, and I must say, looking at it again, it does that to me too. To defend myself, I only placed it on his forehead because it felt like the best place. (Gives way to explain how the abilities thus far ties into his mental prowess. You know, giving more purpose to the goggles and his potential hitai ate. The abilities, now and future ones may seem reminiscent of powers seen thus far to those in the manga and anime and I say I have plausible deniability. To the concentric circles, the number of circles ties in to the amount of abilities that come with his bloodline limit. (Sigh. Three circles, just like Kaguya's; pure coincidence.) I had this story planned for a couple months and I'm just counting her circles. Damn it. If it, in some offhand way inspired the symbol inside my mind, I want to say, 'Whoa, I have to find a show that inspires easy money making without taxes,' and that I disclaim the idea of the number of circles. Just circles. You can take everything else, legal shit and all, and shove it up your *** you god-damn lawyers!**

 **I also wanted to say thanks to Cuddly Cat for being a great help since the story started three weeks ago who also suggested the recent cosmetic changes. Even though it seems trivial, I am always grateful and I won't say no to help. Thanks! :D**

 **That's all for now.**

 **Sayonara.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Well. Chapter 10. Here's the tenth chapter for Breaking Limits. Notes will be at the end.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

 **10.**

Everyone was shocked.

The dead last of the class just beaten the second best of the class in taijutsu and made it look easy.

They were completely speechless with mouths agape.

Iruka was the first to regain the power of speech but his words were still barely coherent.

"K-K-K-Ki-Ki-Kiba l-lo-lost to N-N-N-Na-Naruto…"

Naruto walked up to Shikamaru and retrieved his tanto from the unmoving boy and strapped it back in its rightful place.

"Arigato, Shikamaru." Naruto thanked the boy.

Shikamaru blinked. "Ugh. So troublesome. Douitashimashite. Damn Naruto, where did that come from?"

"Is it really that surprising? I mean, all I did was spar with him. He was going to kick me in a forbidden area so I counter attacked. That's all." Naruto defended.

"That was unexpected…" Shikamaru began.

"So what?! Am I supposed to just grovel in front in front of people who are 'better' than me?! He's supposed to beat me in a match because I'm a dead last? I would prefer 'underdog.' I have as much potential as anyone else." He retorted angrily.

'I have at least twice as much potential as everyone else.' He added in his mind.

" **So true. That was a hard hit though. I stand corrected. Your idea is just as painful as one of mine would have been."**

'Gee, I'm honored.' He thought back sarcastically.

Shikamaru looked at the boy in front of him. The boy's eyes seemed to slightly glaze over whenever he thought to himself as it were the case now. It was almost as if he were talking to someone. 'Naruto is such an enigma…'

Naruto sighed. "Sorry for my outburst Shikamaru. I just…"

"No. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way though. It's just that… you… sucked. And now… you don't. How do I put this…?" Shikamaru stumbled.

"I understand. Later Shikamaru." Naruto walked off back to class.

Shikamaru sighed. "I should have just napped on the desk. This is so..." 'Meh, too troublesome to say.' He went back to class as well and did just that.

After the two boys left, everything erupted into chaos.

"What the hell just happened?"

"The dead last beat him!"

"Kiba lost!"

"Roana, you owe me fifteen ryu! Pay up!"

Mizuki slipped away, no doubt to do some serious thinking about what he just saw. That left Iruka to clean up the aftermath.

'Heh. The dobe did it. That's more evidence that points to him knowing and capable of more. Perhaps I'll find out something more under those goggles. After all, even with his new outfit, he kept his goggles on. There has to be a legitimate reason.' Sasuke thought, walking off to sit under a tree to watch the development. Perhaps someone may even unconsciously yell a viable theory as to how and why Naruto won.

'Surprising. It's almost as if it's a brand new Naruto. He gives off a more confident and serious vibe and he sounds more… refined. My insects insist that it is indeed him, identifying him by his chakra signature. This requires more information. Was he holding back or acting irrationally on purpose? He couldn't have amassed the skills to beat a taijutsu heavy brawler like Kiba in just a day, or even a month when Kiba has practiced everyday even before attending the academy. He had to have been receiving special tutoring for some time. But why would he hide his skills? To what end?' The stoic bug user remained unreadable to the outside world. But it was obvious that he was thinking of the match-...who wouldn't be?

'…Naruto-kun won…' Hinata breathed a little easier. She had worried that Naruto would have gotten hurt and lost badly to Kiba. It seemed that her concerns had been for nothing. But she couldn't help but wonder if his new behavior was due to what had happened the day before. She blushed when she remembered that she had broken down his door. Perhaps she could entreat her father to replace it for him. The clan had the money to spare. After all, they were rich enough.

Ino picked up a stick and poked the still unconscious Kiba in the side, but found him unresponsive. "Is he dead?"

"He's not dead Ino-pig. He's only unconscious. Quit acting like such a blonde!" Sakura yelled.

 **AN - (In Jamaica where I live, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting a natural blond. So no offense to any blond readers. Just so you know, Hollywood is not doing the blond community any favors. Sorry if you take what I made Sakura said as an insult. Back to the story.)**

"Oh yeah! Bill-board brow!"

"Ino-pig!"

They immediately started butting heads like cattle, fighting for dominance.

Iruka gave a long exhale...it really was Naruto's gift to make a class go to shit in no time flat.

"Everyone, get to class."

Naruto sighed and placed his head on the desk. As he blinked he found himself in the mindscape in front of the seal. He peered through the bars and found the great fox sitting on his haunches, waiting for him. **"Well?"**

"I need advice."

" **That will be one extra, you know. And I'm already on '97'."**

"That many? Hmm. Ugh memory doesn't lie. But I never knew you counted advice."

" **Advice counts as help. Take it or leave it."**

Naruto sighed. "I'll take it. '98'."

The Kyuubi nodded. **"What is it?"**

"Am I moving too fast? I mean, I knew I was pushing it by wearing the outfit and all, but I'm revealing some skills I think I should be keeping hidden longer still."

" **Frankly, those 'skills' you showed weren't over complicated. All you did was counter his attacks. Besides, those were his weaknesses. He didn't realize that he was the only one attacking. Besides, his attacks were just attacks with muscle. They lacked any real direction or preceding thought. I don't think you have to worry over anyone suspecting what we do or did. So, is that it?"**

"Umm, yeah. I just don't want to be suspected or put under surveillance. I don't want my name slandered or my privacy invaded."

" **Like what the Hyuuga did yesterday?"** The nine tailed fox gave a toothy smirk.

"That's different. She did that out of concern." The boy defended.

The Kitsune growled audibly at this. **"Ugh. You bore me. Get the fuck out. It's now at '98'."**

"What the hell? I'm supposed to get out of my own mind?! Is it your time of the month or something?"

" **I'm an 'it'. However, I have a 'male' temperament, so I consider myself a 'male', 'dude', 'guy', 'man.'**

"I was only joking. I knew that already."

" **Your classmates have returned."**

"Bye!" Naruto winked out of sight in the mindscape.

The fox demon sighed. **"Good riddance. I wanted to sleep."** He muttered. He let his head sag unto jis forelegs and did just that.

 **Outside, one minute earlier.**

"Look! The guy's asleep!" a civilian student exclaimed.

"I'm not surprised. They agreed for fifteen minutes, but they were fighting it out for half an hour." His friend replied.

"Heh. I'm grateful. That's a half hour I don't have to listen to Iruka-sensei's lecture."

"I don't look at it that way. I look at it as a half hour of sleep _lost_."

The boys laughed but were rudely pushed out of the way by a certain Uchiha.

"Out of my way."

"Hey! Watch it! Geez. What a prick."

The raven haired youth ignored the boys whom he had affronted. He looked to the Uzumaki who seemed asleep. 'Perfect.'

This was likely an opportune time to remove those damned goggles. His curiosity had reached its peak when he replayed the fight in his mind and realized that whenever Naruto would be harmed in the face he took more precautions to protect it than even his weakest vital areas. What aspiring ninja would do that?

He reached up to the 'sleeping' boy and lifted his head with one hand. 'Hn. Unresponsive. Must be a heavy sleeper. How pathetic.'

"Sasuke-kun, what are you doing?" Ino asked.

The Uchiha did not answer as he grasped the boy's goggles with his free hand and started to pull it off.

Naruto's eyes exploded open and grabbed Sasuke's offending hand.

"What do you think you're doing, Uchiha?" He bit out, already more than just a bit upset.

"I'm taking your goggles off. What does it look like I'm doing?" The boy replied arrogantly.

"They're mine, so shove off." Naruto stood up and gave him a slight push away from himself. (Just so he couldn't be accused of aggravating him.)

'Hmm. He could still be an idiot. I could just ask him.' Sasuke thought.

"Can I look them over?" he asked.

"No. Sentimental value."

The Uchiha said something he never thought he'd say. "Please?" he strained.

"Sorry, no." Naruto was shocked to hear the Uchiha showing courtesy. Perhaps there was hope for him after all.

"Naruto-baka, give Sasuke-kun the stupid goggles!" Sakura yelled at the blond haired boy and attempted to punch him in the head.

Attempted to.

He used his left hand to grab her offending right arm on the outside, placed her in a half turn and pushed her away from himself. "What did I do? All I said was 'no' politely. And that was after he tried to acquire something that belonged to me without seeking my permission first."

The class was stumped. Naruto did not take the hit from Sakura? He pushed her away? He explained himself calmly and eloquently?

Sasuke growled. 'This dobe is being difficult. There are only two things I can do. Call him out on a fight and remove them by force or use the damn fan girls. But my taijutsu needs work and Kiba was a close second best in it and he made Kiba look like an idiot. He could still be hiding more skills in it. Fuck.'

"Naruto."

"Hai?" he answered.

"Would you hit a girl?"

Naruto stopped. Would he hit a girl? Tricky. "Only if she caused me grievous bodily harm or if she was trying to kill me." He replied.

The Uchiha nodded slowly. That's fair. Made sense. That would serve his purposes.

"The first girl to get me the goggles gets a kiss on the cheek," he strained out through gritted teeth.

Naruto paled. 'Well… shit.'

 **Later**

"Kuso. You know, I would have expected him to fight me himself. Not to practically tell the girls to do it instead."

The boy was frazzled. He had kept his goggles, and his secret symbol safe. And all he had to do was climb a tall tree and refuse to come down until Iruka dragged him down after the girls gave up waiting after three hours. This had practically ruined the school day as half the class (girls) refused to go inside when Iruka wanted to teach.

" **Me too."**

He now spoke to the fox in his mind. 'What should we work on?'

" **The best thing would be to study."**

"I have that in the bag. All I have to do is to answer two or three questions. I even read over everything from Hinata's notes. She's really nice. She stutters a lot around me though, but not as much around everyone else. I wonder why that is."

' **It's just the first day. But if everyday is gonna be like this, I'm going to regret not telling him today.' "No clue."** The nine tails replied. **"Studying is out. Hmm. Taijutsu is doing alright. That leaves bukijutsu** (weapon techniques e.g. Shuriken, kunai) **and Ninjutsu."**

'My Bukijutsu needs work. I'll work on that.'

"' **99.'"**

'What? No it's not.'

" **You asked me for what I thought. Which is my opinion...which is guidance...which is advice...which is help. Therefore, it's now at '99'."**

Naruto growled in frustration. 'Fine. I didn't know I was that helpless.'

Naruto grabbed his shuriken and kunai holsters. On his way out he shut his door behind him and again stopped it up with cardboard. He then made his way to an unused training ground.

 **At the Training ground.**

Naruto quickly set the training post upright and checked it.

"Seems to be in good condition." He muttered to himself.

He backpedaled and guessed that he was thirty yards away from it and toed a line in the dirt.

"I've never made it accurately from this distance. I usually miss by a couple of inches." He said out loud.

" **Just try it. Every time you miss, you have to cut yourself."**

"What?"

" **Cut…yourself."** The Kyuubi said slowly, almost as if it were a threat.

"Hmm. I would try my utmost best so as to avoid maiming myself. Interesting. **No**."

" **Do it or I'll give you horrible nightmares."**

"Like what?" Naruto scoffed.

" **Make you dream of kissing the Sandaime hokage, for starters. Or make you relive the anbu feeding you vegetables."**

"What…the…fuck."

" **Get to it."** It was extremely difficult, if not nigh impossible to affect his dreams. But his container didn't need to know that...'motivation' was needed.

Naruto hurriedly got out his weapons, three kunai and seven shuriken.

'Alright. Just don't miss.'

He stared at the bull's-eye and threw the first kunai. He watched it sail through the air to the target.

And hit dead center.

" **Do that another ten times, then I may be impressed."**

Naruto gulped. His physical health (or mental one) was on the line. He readied his second kunai and threw it.

And it hit dead center as well.

He was shocked. To even throw two in a row accurately at thirty yards was rare for him. Suddenly he started thinking.

'I wonder if this has something to do with 'Focus'.

The Kyuubi had caught the thought and momentarily thought the same thing. **'Perhaps.'**

" **Boy, focus on the bull's-eye and throw three shuriken from each hand at the same time. I won't punish you if you miss. That should be a chunin level technique by itself."**

"What?! I can't do that! My aim is atrocious already!"

" **Do it, or I'll change my mind about the punishment."**

The lad readied his shuriken. He focused on the bull's-eye only, just like before, exhaled and then threw the shuriken, with his hand following through with the throw.

All the shuriken made it in the bull's-eye at relatively the same time, seemingly competing for a chance to stick. Some had knocked the others off when reaching the small dot but the proof was there. All the shuriken had made it to the tiny bull's-eye.

" **Mm-hmm. Do it again at fifty yards."**

The boy retrieved all of his weapons at the bull's-eye and repeated his success at fifty yards. Then one hundred. The yard number continued to grow until his aim missed (dropping below the bull's-eye) due to lack of arm strength. There was no mistake. With 'focus', his mental acuity as well as his aim had improved a thousand fold overnight. He couldn't miss, unless he lacked the strength to throw.

'Focus'? Mediocre? Yeah right.

"YATTA! I'm gonna rip shit up tomorrow! Watch out shinobi world, badass ninja number one is COMING!" The boy jumped up and down with a shit eating grin on his face. "Now for Ninjutsu. Let's see. Henge, kawarimi and bunshin…Bunshin… Shit." The boy's happy demeanor dropped. Oh no."

" **What is it?"** The Kyuubi was starting to wonder if the boy was bipolar, given how quickly he changed his mood.

"…Bunshin…"

" **What about it? Speak boy!"**

"I don't have the chakra control for it."

The Kyuubi now understood. **"Chakra control for the bunshin is impossible for you. You will never have the control to even make ten, let alone three. I suppose that I'm to blame for that."**

The boy's control wasn't horrible per say. His control at the moment was excellent for an aspiring genin. He had seen chunin at their barracks walking up trees and walking on water with just chakra and had practiced it for eighteen months now. But in order to even have enough control over his Bijuu enhanced reserves he would need at least four times the control he had now. He didn't know anymore chakra control exercises at the moment and neither did the nine tails. In other words, unless he could get a next-to-impossible amount of control within the next eighteen hours, he was screwed.

"The bunshin are merely images. Almost like a genjutsu. That's impossible for me."

The Kyuubi nodded from inside the seal. **"For you to even make ten bunshin is like pouring water from a five gallon bucket through a straw. It's just not going to work unless you can convince them to let you create at least forty bunshins instead of three. Or perhaps plead your case to the Sandaime."**

"What if I used youki bunshins instead?" Naruto asked.

" **No use. It wouldn't look like you anyway. Just a feral 'man' version of me. Even if a henge was used on the bunshin, they would detect it and fail you. Even the process of making a clone with youki would alert the whole village that my power was being released and used. The village's anbu would have you under chains and locks in less than a minute. No chance."**

"Kuso! Everything is stacked against me. Do you know any other cloning techniques?"

" **Do I look like I would busy myself learning bunshin techniques of you ningen?"**

"Guess that's a no. I'll have to talk to jiji then."

The boy got his throwing weapons together and replaced them back into the holster and made his leave. As he ran to the Hokage tower to see his surrogate grandfather, he wondered if he would be able to help him with his unfortunate situation.

 **Hokage Tower**

The Sandaime Hokage stamped another document with his seal of approval.

'Damn it all. I'm getting too old for this shit.'

The door opened.

"Hello hokage-sama. I have brought more documents that were sent here seeking approval."

'Great. It seems that's all my secretary is good for. To bring more paperwork. Just when I thought I was almost done.'

His secretary finished pushing the door open with her rear and turned around, revealing a double armful of folders of paperwork. She placed them on his desk and remarked.

"Also, Hokage-sama, Uzumaki is also here to see you."

'Uzumaki?' "Send him in please." He requested.

"Right away, Hokage-sama."

She made her way outside and told the boy outside to go in. Soon enough he did.

"Hi-ya Jiji!" the boy said boisterously. "I need a favor."

The hokage stared at the individual in front of him. 'Didn't she say Naruto? Blue eyes, whiskers, grin… it's him.'

"Uh, Jiji?"

Hiruzen cleared his throat. "Yes, kon-nichi wa, Naruto-kun. I must say, your new look is a vast improvement. Congratulations. What inspired the change?"

The boy faltered a little before composing himself. "I just decided that I… was unprepared for the ninja world before."

"And you are now?" Hiruzen asked curiously.

"Hai."

"So what is it that you need, Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen asked, puffing on his pipe. Normally, Naruto would come get his allowance from him, or hide from anbu he pranked. The latter wouldn't work anyway. But he must admit the truth; if Naruto used his allowance to buy his new gear, it was money well spent.

"It's about the exams tomorrow."

"What about them?"

"I can't do the bunshin no jutsu, Jiji."

"How so? Are they not battle viable, or that you can't make number necessary?" He knew the actual problem. He was actually testing Naruto's knowledge of his handicap.

"I don't have the necessary chakra control to make only a few. I have to make dozens. If I don't, the jutsu will be far from sufficiently successful," Naruto explained.

Sarutobi studied the whiskered boy in front of him. 'His vocabulary has improved, as well as his knowledge of his drawbacks. He's also more settled and refined, somewhat. He's matured. I wonder when? Is it due to his childhood abuse that sped it up? But I saw him last week and he was still behaving like a cheeky brat. Something happened between now and then. Perhaps the stress of the genin exams had caused it. But he's normally too headstrong to ask for help. I wonder…'

"I'm sorry Naruto. There are no known control exercises that could help. There's a reason why jounin don't perform that particular jutsu. It's very difficult on their high chakra reserves, as well as being next to useless in battle, being only illusions that cast no shadow of their own."

"Then why are we learning it?" Naruto asked, frustrated.

"It's because it's a genin level technique. They are considered that because if you cannot perform them at that level then you are not considered worthy of being a ninja. However, after enough progress, genin will pick up higher level clones from their jounin instructors like elemental bunshins. By the time you reach jounin, you pick up the shadow clone jutsu. They have a lot of potential. But it is a forbidden jutsu, severely taxing on chakra reserves. The jutsu splits up your chakra evenly among the clones, so the more you create the more dangerous it is, as if you create ten or a dozen, your reserves will be reduced to a tenth or a twelfth of it's original capacity. A true double edged sword." 'Not to mention the mental issues from received memories when they disperse.' Are you still following?"

"Yeah. I'm still following. Were you expecting me to fall asleep or something?"

"Yes. I did."

"Hmm. If what you're saying is true, then why not teach me a higher bunshin technique?" Naruto pleaded.

"Gomen, Naruto-kun. If I help you directly with your training, it would be frowned upon because of my position giving you something of an advantage." Sarutobi said.

"How about 'indirectly' then?" Naruto whispered in a scandalous sounding tone.

"No, Naruto. My position was built on trust. I cannot disgrace it by dealings done under the table."

Naruto was disappointed. "Huh. Can you find some way to for me to make more than the ruled three?"

"I don't predict much good coming from that Naruto. It would show me making a special case for you, another example of favoritism. I cannot do anything within my power to help. Perhaps you could ask them tomorrow. The only other solution points to that of you requesting a jounin or chunin's help to teach you a new bunshin technique."

"Hmm. Sounds reasonable. Thanks Jiji."

"Douitashimashite, Naruto-kun."

Naruto made his exit and shut the door behind him.

Sarutobi released a huge sigh. This was a huge problem. Unless something fortuitous occurred, Naruto wouldn't become a ninja. Konaha would lose one of its greatest military assets; that which was the Kyuubi jinchuriki. Not to say he didn't care for the boy himself. The boy wouldn't achieve his dream of becoming hokage.

Wait a minute.

'Naruto never once proclaimed he would not do it nor did he proclaim his dream of becoming hokage. Strange.'

The aged Sandaime returned to his paperwork.

 **With Naruto, nine pm.**

" **Well, at least you tried."**

"I know. But none of the higher ups wanted to train me. Probably because of my status. Didn't know I was discriminated by them too. So many excuses. 'Busy', 'Late', 'Don't feel like it', 'Sick relatives'…" Naruto was growing angrier with each excuse he repeated. "Fuck! We'll show them, Kyuubi. Why are we even trying to get on a team, anyway? Just to have one of these jounin pricks order us around?!" He exclaimed the last question, exasperated almost to the point of tears. "My teammates probably won't even work with me! Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" Each expletive growing louder than the last. He kicked down his dilapidated dining room table and it fell over, collapsing in pieces. He finally huddled in the corner of the room, crying.

"Why?" He sobbed. "I don't even want that damn hat anymore. "To be leader of a village like this?"

" **Kit…"** The Kyuubi slipped and called Naruto as his own 'child.'

The distraught boy barely noticed in his emotional state. "Yeah?"

" **You know what you want. You want to protect the weak, help those that are innocent, like those orphans. You even deprive yourself of staying at that warm and happy orphanage just so no harm comes there because of your status. You stay here in this shithole just so they can be happy. And that's only one case you helped selflessly. You want to become someone people look up to, not necessarily the Hokage. And if you are going to make a simple bunshin stand in your way of that ambition...you're not Naruto. You're just a washed up wuss who gave up. Now get the FUCK up and grow a FUCKING BACKBONE!"**

Naruto, who had been listening half heartedly, restrained himself from laughing at the adverse temperaments in the attempted motivational speech but had had his usual confidence and determination return...that was clear by merely looking at his eyes.

That's right. He knew why he lived; why he got up in the morning; what he aspired to be. He went hungry so others didn't have to. He lived like a pauper so others could sleep in warm beds. He suffered so others didn't have to. That was his drive and he wasn't going to have some ignorant civilians and biased ninja stand in his way of that.

"Thanks Kyuubi. I needed that."

" **Kurama."**

"Excuse me?"

" **That's my name, kit. My name is Kurama. I'm getting so damn sick of you calling my title as a name."**

"Heh. Goodnight Kurama."

" **Goodnight Naruto."**

 **Exams, next day.**

"Next, Uchiha Sasuke." The instructor announced.

Said boy frowned and stood. Finally his turn. Ninjutsu was his fortè, his field of expertise in the class. He would do nothing short of perfect. He made his way to the designated room and shut the door behind him.

"Troublesome. Couldn't they have let me just go on home?" A certain Nara grumbled to his whiskered companion. "I passed. There was no need to keep me here."

"Quit your complaining. At least you passed." Naruto retorted, eyeing Shikamaru's hitai ate. He had tied it around his upper arm on his biceps. "It's a forehead protector, why don't you wear there?"

"I'm not complaining. I'm merely… saying how displeased I am. And it doesn't matter where you wear it, as long as you have it in noticeable view, it's not against the rules. And what do you mean 'at least I passed'?" Practically everyone passed. Only you and our blond classmate are left. Troublesome."

"I'm saying that because… there is a high chance I won't."

"Eh? You seemed confident doing the written exam, which is unusual for you I might add, aced taijutsu with Sasuke and Kiba. All that's left is Ninjutsu, and that's a breeze. Even I didn't complain doing that."

"…Fortune smiles on the lazy…" Naruto bemoaned.

The door opened again to reveal a raven haired youth sporting his hitai ate on his forehead. He smirked and reclaimed his seat. Almost as soon as he did, fan girls surrounded him; it only served to make him drop the smirk for a look of slight exasperation.

"Next, Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto heaved himself up and steeled himself, he went inside to see both Mizuki and Iruka sitting behind a desk, with a box with a few headbands in it.

'So close…'

"Kon-nichi wa Naruto. Please begin. Perform a henge."

"Anyone special?" Naruto asked Iruka.

"Do anyone."

Naruto placed his hand in a ram handseal. "Henge!" he was surrounded by a thin layer of smoke.

The smoke soon cleared to reveal a perfect version of Iruka. "Naruto! Pay attention!" Naruto yelled in his impersonation.

"Excellent. The yell was comical and unnecessary though." Iruka was displeased. "Anyway, now to perform a Kawarimi. Are you ready?"

"Hai sensei."

Iruka threw a senbon needle at Naruto's foot and he instantly substituted for a chair.

"Very good."

Naruto returned back to his place and waited for the words he didn't want to hear.

"Now, perform the **bunshin no jutsu** , three of them please."

'And yet so far…'

"Um, Iruka-sensei, can I do more than three?"

Mizuki spoke up for the first time. "No you can't, Naruto. Three's the number set by the academy's board."

"I see. So it's non negotiable?"

"No Naruto, they're not. Those are the rules."

Naruto's set his face in a grim expression. To Iruka, it was as if it were chiseled out of granite.

 **Outside, fifteen minutes later**

Naruto watched the students jostle around with their parents. All were happy except for him. He could hear small exclamations of parents who claimed to be proud of their children who had passed their genin exam.

'Yeah. Let them celebrate. They're gonna die out there in the real world. A ninja is merely a person who kills for money. That's what it boils down to. I don't think I would have been happy either way if I had passed. It's just a means to an end. But in order to be able to carry out my purposes, I need to become a ninja.'

" **True."**

"Hey! The dobe didn't pass! What an idiot!" Kiba shouted.

"He still kicked your ass yesterday Kiba. I'm out fifteen ryu because you lost."

"Shut up Roana! I underestimated him!"

Naruto ignored him. If Kiba was trying to get a rise out of him, he was going to be disappointed. He wasn't going to start up any shenanigans, but if Kiba wanted to… he was going to put a stop to it.

"Hey dead last! Can't make a simple bunshin? You're such an idiot!" Kiba taunted.

No answer.

"Don't you hear me talking to you, dumbass?"

Still no answer.

Kiba stomped up to Naruto and grabbed Naruto's shoulder.

"Unhand my shoulder, Kiba." Naruto growled.

"Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it dead last?"

Naruto grabbed the handle in his short holster. He was about to pull out the yet-to-be discovered weapon out of it when he heard Mizuki's voice.

"Oi, Naruto! I want to have a word with you!" He yelled, walking up to said boy. "Inuzuka, go on home. I can still renounce your ninja status you know. It's still early."

"Huh?" The boy asked to clarify.

"He means it's not too late to take back your headband from you, mongrel," Naruto scoffed.

"What was that?!" Kiba yelled.

"Enough." Mizuki ordered. "Kiba, leave."

Kiba grudgingly let Naruto's shoulder go and left with his friends. He glanced back at Naruto with hate in his eyes as if to say, "This isn't over."

Naruto had a bored look in his eyes that spoke volumes of indifference.

He turned his attention back to his teacher. "What is it, Mizuki-sensei?"

Mizuki grinned. "There is a way to still become a genin. A secondary exam, if you want to call it that…"

 **Six hours later**

Naruto landed on the branch neatly and leapt off to another in a ninja dash through the trees. He was doing rather well, he supposed. The better his time, the more time he had to read over the scroll.

The Kyuubi caught the thought. **"You, of course, knows that this is a trap."**

"I know. But I'm sure _you_ know why I went through with this."

" **Hai. If you get caught, just blame it on the teacher and childish ignorance. Even though you promised yourself never to be ignorant."**

"I said 'ignorance is bliss but stupidity be damned.' You can't really fool me on memory based events if I experienced it. I know that I'm still ignorant of some things. The only way to no never be ignorant is to be omniscient. And that's impossible."

" **Kami knows everything,"** The nine tails rebuffed.

"I mean among us lesser beings." Naruto said.

" **Speak for yourself."**

"You didn't even remember my exact words."

"… **Shut up."**

The boy finally reached the clearing and removed the scroll from his back.

'Kurama, with my abilities, I can just read over the scroll and 'understand' everything. With my 'memory', I'll remember everything, training myself for a long time. Nothing will go wrong."

The Kyuubi did not answer.

 **Three hours later**

Nothing was going right.

" **You just had to laugh at him, didn't you?"**

'It was funny! 'You are the nine tailed fox!' he yells at me. I mean, I know that for what, four-five years now? What did he expect me to do, keel over in shock and cry?'

" **Probably. But he is about to kill Iruka. You should do something though. Which technique have you learnt already?"**

'I learnt the Kage bunshin no jutsu, elemental bunshins and Bunshin daibakuha. Wait a minute.' Naruto grew a huge grin that threatened to split his face in two. 'Bunshin Daibakuha.'

" **I worry if you are still sane."**

"Shut up Mizuki-teme! He's not like that!" Umino yelled, panting for breath.

"I'm gonna put you out of your misery Iruka. You're only leading a pathetic existence, being a teacher to brats. Lord Orichimaru was right. This village is waste of land space. It shall be destroyed, paving the way for something more glorious!"

Naruto peeked from around the tree. Mizuki stood with fuma shuriken over Iruka who was struggling to even get to his knees. It did not look like an ideal situation for Iruka.

'That's it. I'm intervening.' Naruto grabbed the handle of his tanto.

' **Don't kill Mizuki. It seems that he might have information on Orichimaru.'** The nine tails warned.

'This is going to be a whole lot harder if I'm not going for a killing blow. How am I supposed to beat a chunin?' Naruto grabbed his mystery holster.

" **Just do it. If I think you're going to lose, I'll help you."**

'How?'

" **You know what I mean. Just hope that I won't need to help."**

Naruto created a Kage bunshin next to him and told it to henge into the hokage. "Go flank around." He whispered.

The clone left to do as it were told as Naruto jumped out of the tree. "Oi! Mizuki! So you think I'm the Kyuubi, huh?" he yelled at the betrayer.

"What?! You should have just run away, Kyuubi!" He yelled back, momentarily stopped in his process of disposing of Iruka.

"If you really think I'm the nine tailed fox demon, shouldn't you be running away?" 'Oi! Kurama! I need some help with killing intent!"

The Bijuu complied and channeled his concentrated killing intent at the ninja criminal, making him fall to his knees, but he fought it, soon regaining control of his legs.

"I'm used to Lord Orichimaru's killing intent. Yours doesn't even come close." Mizuki strained through gritted teeth.

Naruto frowned. 'Damn. Maybe it's because Kurama has to channel it through me the reason's its not as strong as it should be.'

"Mizuki! What is the meaning of this! What are you doing with Iruka-san?"

The silver haired chunin paled when he heard the hokage's voice. He turned around slowly to see 'Hiruzen', frowning like a thundercloud.

Mizuki did a bit of a double take and grinned. "Nice try Naruto. I see that it's just a henge."

'But even so, how did he do that? He can't do a bunshin and bunshin can't talk or be hidden under henge. He must have learnt a bunshin technique from the scroll. But which one's a clone?'

He took two kunai and threw them at blurring speeds at both Narutos. Both exploded into smoke.

One into nothing, one into a log.

"Hn. Kage bunshin. Impressive. But I'm a chunin! You're not even a genin!" he yelled, looking up into the trees. He got no answer to his taunt. "If you don't come back, I'll kill Iruka!" He still heard nothing except for a stray owl, hooting its cry.

Deciding to make good on his threat, he looked down again while taking out a kunai. He gawked.

Iruka wasn't there.

"What's the matter?" The ethereal sounding voice seemed to come from everywhere.

"Where are you?! I'm going to gut you like a fish!" The chunin yelled.

"Alright. I'm coming." Naruto said, as if in multiple voices.

The chunin smirked. "How wise. He wouldn't want me angry."

"We're all coming."

Huh?

Fifty clones came into the clearing. As if on cue, they all grasped the secondary weapons on their waists.

They all withdrew the handles at the same time and swiped it down rapidly, the weapon extending itself into a baton. They all assumed Naruto's taijutsu stance as they readied themselves.

Mizuki was feeling overwhelmed but he didn't let it show.

"Get him!"

The clones charged the traitor, bomb rushing him. Mizuki took out two kunai in each hand and prepared to defend himself. He swiped at the closest clone and he puffed away into smoke. Seeing a clone about to strike him in the face, he dropped to his knees, letting the clone strike another of his brethren. He threw one of his kunai at a very suspicious looking clone, smirking in satisfaction when he saw it bleed.

All the clones dispelled.

"I knew you were the one. You didn't try to fight like everyone else." Mizuki walked up to the collapsed boy who was holding his chest. Mizuki readied his last kunai and chucked it at Naruto's throat, grinning in satisfaction when he saw the boy begin to bleed out.

…

…

…

Naruto turned into water.

"Water bunshin?!"

Immediately following, an Iwa clone dropped out of the trees onto the baffled chunin with only his knees onto Mizuki's shoulders and then dispersing into rocks, further injuring the man.

"Aarrg!" He yelled in pain.

A voice sounded from behind him.

" **Futon: Daitoppa!"** (Wind release: Great breakthrough) A massive and powerful wind from a clone blew the man away towards the real Naruto. He couldn't stop his motion as he saw the Uzumaki take out his baton and tightened his grip on it.

"No!" Mizuki realized what was about to happen.

Naruto sidestepped and clocked the silver haired man with the baton with a devastating clothesline move, shattering his jaw. Mizuki's legs flew forward in front of him and the man landed on his back, out cold.

Naruto sighed. It was finally finished.

He created some kage bunshin that each carried the man by a limb. He was joined by two more kage bunshin that had Iruka leaning on his shoulder and another who had the forbidden scroll of seals.

They walked back to the village, not one word passing between them.

 **Hokage's office**

Hiruzen sighed and put away the ball. He had seen enough. They were almost here anyway. He had felt disappointed when he had learnt Naruto didn't pass. But he wasn't surprised. The genin exams were practically rigged against him and creating weak genin in the process. He didn't, no, couldn't help him. But somewhere along the line, he felt that he should have done more to help Naruto. But how did Naruto learn those fighting skills, that jutsu? Someone was helping him but he did not know who. Or rather, he did not know of anyone willing to teach the pariah of the village a jutsu.

A few knocks came at the door.

Hiruzen sighed. "Come in Iruka-san, Naruto-kun."

The door opened to reveal said people who one of which dispelled his clones carrying Mizuki. The action dropped the traitor unceremoniously to the floor. Sarutobi sensed his anbu about to attack so he diverted them by ordering them to carry the unconscious man to Ibiki at Torture and Interrogations.

They disappeared with said man, akin to nothing more than ghosts.

"Hokage-sama, it's been a long night for me, I would like to return home, or go to a hospital, and I may have injured something." The chunin requested.

"Very well, Iruka. You may go."

The chunin was about to go when he hesitated. "Naruto?"

The boy turned around to look at him. "Hai?"

Umino took off his headband and walked up to Naruto and gave to him. "Arigatou, Naruto, for saving me. I'll see you Monday."

Naruto understood but feigned ignorance. "Monday?" he asked.

"Hai. Congratulations Naruto. You're now a ninja." Iruka said with a smile.

Naruto didn't.

"Come on Naruto smile a little. Why don't you put it on? Put it on your forehead, let us see how it looks." Sarutobi asked.

"I would rather not. I have… an embarrassing scar there." Naruto said.

Iruka thought back to the day before concerning the goggles fiasco. "I see." He nodded to Naruto.

Sarutobi wasn't convinced. For as long as he knew Naruto, he didn't scar easily, especially with his…'condition'. Nothing short of a branding would scar him.

"Naruto, you're among friends. Please try it on. Aren't you excited? You're a step closer to being hokage."

"I would rather **not,** Hokage-sama." Naruto glared.

Hiruzen was surprised. He had expected Naruto to be bouncing off the walls. But he was practically behaving like a branch Hyuuga, firm, glaring, hiding his forehead and all that. However, he didn't press the issue. "That's fine Naruto. I will respect your privacy."

Naruto nodded. "May I leave as well? I am exhausted by the day's events."

Sarutobi frowned. There's that attitude again. "That would serve us well Naruto. You may come in tomorrow at ten am to report what happened."

Naruto gave a slow nod. "I see. Very well, Hokage-sama."

Naruto left and shut the door behind him.

Hiruzen snapped his fingers and an anbu flashed into the room. "Yes Hokage-sama?" he asked.

"Watch Uzumaki Naruto until Tomorrow morning. Make sure he doesn't do anything rash or foolish."

The Anbu shunshinned away.

"Oh Naruto. Where did I go wrong?" The Sandaime said to no one in particular.

 **With Naruto**

" **So you're a ninja now huh? I thought you would be doing cartwheels right now."**

'Not now, Kurama. I just want to sleep.'

And so he did, without even realizing he was being watched.

 **And done. Must be 30k by now. I have never even written as much as two thousand words at any one time in my life. Damn, my hands feel like I'm getting carpel tunnel syndrome. I need a break. Anyway that's chapter ten. You'll notice that I try to dodge most of cannon and such. It's because it feels like a cheap shot to get a bigger word count sometimes. I mean, that's why we're all here. To dodge canon.**

 **I am grateful that people take the time to read and I want to say thanks for reading. Speaking of that, time for me to get back to** _ **my**_ **reading, heh-heh.**

 **Sayonara.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Ugh. Back from break. Wrists aren't aching that much anymore. Well, back to the story. I'm gonna try to do rapid updates because… I know I would like that in the fics I read.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

 **11.**

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed. He had completed hearing the story from both Naruto and Iruka's point of view an hour ago. Considering that he was watching the whole development using his crystal ball technique, he knew that they did not omit any details. Naruto had not done anything but sleep last night as reported by the anbu he had watch him. But nothing made sense.

'Naruto is now fully aware of his jinchuriki status, and yet… he took it so well. As if he has now matured with an adult mind now or… knew already. But I'm sure no one has told him. But if they did, someone's head is going to roll. They all knew the penalty for speaking about something that is forbidden under S rank secrecy. But he didn't tap into the fox's power to fight last night. How did Naruto stop Mizuki? He's just an aspiring genin but Mizuki is a mid to high chunin. That explains how he bested Iruka. Umino is low chunin level. Naruto… used a metal stick of some sort. Highly unpractical for a ninja. It seems to rely on stopping power instead of killing power; I have never seen anything like it before. And he used an elemental jutsu. Even though the **Daitoppa** is a C rank jutsu, it seems that Naruto poured more chakra into it to make it a borderline B. He also displayed a good usage in battlefield tactics to stop Mizuki, but to also take him in alive. I would have expected Naruto to try and spam clones to stop Mizuki. And the clones… Naruto said that he learned the shadow clone jutsu as well as the elemental bunshins. It felt…off. As if he had learnt more. To even learn the shadow clone jutsu in a few hours is stupendous for anyone short of a genius, much less elemental bunshins as well. As it stands now, Naruto is the strongest in his class, at least twice as strong as the so-called prodigy Uchiha Sasuke. If he gets placed on that team, the team will be the strongest and imbalanced. But which team? I shall discuss it with the jounin senseis tomorrow. They already know about the incident. Hmm. To think Naruto has grown the most and is the strongest of his generation without our assistance, as much as it shames me to say it, is…unsettling.'

The aged hokage puffed on his pipe twice and returned to his work. While doing so, he discovered a note between two reports that warranted his attention.

' _I shall return to check up on the dealings of the changes I have instated. I will also need to speak to Hyuuga Hiashi while in your presence. I hope I receive a better reception than what I received all those years ago. I shall be there at nine pm tonight.'_

"It's him. Ugh. It's going to be a long night."

 **With Naruto**

A boy was currently sitting in a lotus position with his hands in a ram seal. He wasn't trying to perform a jutsu, or concentrating his chakra to use. He found that doing this form of meditational exercise helped him to relax and collect his thoughts.

'Teams.'

'Jounin sensei.'

'Jutsus learned.'

'Chakra control.'

'Myself dying.'

Naruto opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow. Where did he get that visualized thought? It's as if he **remembered** dying, when he didn't. He visualized again.

'Hmm.'

He created two kage bunshin. He whispered to one of them to dispose of the other when they were out of sight.

"Alright you two," He said aloud. "Go into the forest."

They complied and went into the forest. Two minutes later, Naruto felt an influx of information, already embedding itself in his memory, never to be forgotten. Then he heard the clone he had ordered to kill the other return back to him with a smirk on his face.

"Well, I did it boss. Was there a purpose to that exercise?"

"Hai. I now realize the limitless potential you clones have."

"Which is?"

" **Uh, boy? Are you alright? You do know you're talking to yourself, right? People will think you're crazy,"** the fox said, speaking for the first time since the day's beginning.

"Huh?" The clone asked. "I can hear Kurama. I'm not crazy. He is." The clone said, pointing at the original Naruto.

Naruto did a double take. "First off, I'm not crazy. Second," Naruto pointed to his gut. "Kurama is inside me, not you." 'Damn clone.'

'Stupid boss.'

Both of the clones stopped and stared at each other.

'Can you hear me think?' Naruto asked in his mind.

'Yes.' He heard the answer, courtesy of the clone that appeared to be in thought.

" **I see. The seal must have made it possible for you both to communicate by telepathy. Like a connection. But why did you make him dispose of the other clone?"** Kurama asked.

'I remember… getting stabbed in the back by a kunai because of this clone here.' Naruto thought. The clone only smirked in response.

'I had considered bashing his head in with a rock.'

'Sometimes I scare myself.'

'I heard that!' The clone retorted.

Kurama sighed. He had no doubt that on the outside Naruto must have looked like he was in a staring contest with himself. **'Perhaps he really has gone mental.'**

Naruto sighed. The clone, seeing that its job was done, dispelled himself, leaving the Uzumaki on his own again.

'Anyway,' he thought to Kurama. 'It seems these clones pass on memories upon dispelling. This would make for excellent scouting, espionage and other dangerous situations. To think…' The cog wheels in Naruto's head started grinding. 'I could be my own team. Not a registered team, but one I have in case my so called 'future teammates' let me down.'

" **A team that you could rely on, one that is expendable and able to communicate through literal speech. But a team would need diverse talents. Not everyone exactly the same. So it's not an ideal team."** The kitsune replied.

'Just think about it. If they can pass on memories, they might be able to pass on several forms of progress. Or even my elemental clones. Each elemental clone might be able to train affinities until they become strong, and pass them to me upon dispelling.'

" **Sounds viable theoretically. Perhaps I could use my youki energy to make the clones longer lasting. Imagine. You could have these clones training by using clones themselves. When the important clones dispel you could gain years upon years of training, all in a month or two."**

"I like it! The boy exclaimed. "We won't need the village's mediocre team. We'll do it ourselves. But what will we call ourselves?"

The great fox thought for a moment.

" **The idiot and his clones?"** the nine tails asked humorously.

"NO." The boy was not amused. "Hmm...how about 'The Tenacious Thirteen?" He asked, a bit unsure.

" **Thirteen is such an unlucky number. Why that?"** The Kyuubi was curious.

"Thirteen aspects. Clone with different aspects. Each clone will specialize with one of each specialty that comes with being a shinobi. **Futon, katon, doton, suiton, raiton, taijutsu, kenjutsu, traps, medical, espionage and assassination, interrogation and torture, scouting and sensoring.** "

The Kyuubi did a quick count. **"That's twelve."**

"And I make lucky number thirteen."

" **Lucky?"**

"You know what I mean!"

The Kyuubi grinned. **"Tenacious: firm and strong, not easily stopped. The: shows that the group is unique. Thirteen: Dark and foreboding like your past. I like it. Looks like you have an ambition."**

Naruto nodded. So he did. He got to work, now having a goal to work towards.

 **With Hiashi**

The stoic Hyuuga head settled himself behind his desk to continue his paperwork concerning the clan. His daughter had finally left him to go train with her sister.

'So she broke it down? I never once thought that her feelings for the young Uzumaki would even break her shy personality, even if it was only for a one time thing. She broke his door in her concern for him. Perhaps she is enamored with him. Is it because of the time he saved her from bullies? The boy himself was mistakenly punished by Hinata's guardian, Ko. Hmm. But I don't want her to have anything with him. Granted, that act so many years ago was selfless but Hinata should have been able to take care of herself. All we may owe him is the replacement of the door. Nothing else.'

Hiashi began sorting through his documents, the in and out boxes were rather messy. Soon, there were neatly organized and all the paperwork approved were stamped and signed while the others went into the waste basket. He was a rather quick and efficient and he rather enjoyed doing it. But soon after he had no more to continue and he was left with nothing to do.

'Perhaps I could teach Hinata something new to aid her, seeing that she will be placed on a team come Monday. I will find out then. I hope that she isn't paired up with someone who is uncouth or has no tact.'

A sharp knock came at the door.

'Who could that be?' Hiashi activated his byakugan to see through the door. 'Hmm. Why is there an anbu op here?' he mused. 'He's probably an errand from the hokage. But what?' Deciding to find out the answers he called out.

"Come in."

The anbu entered into the room with military grace, not one movement wasted. He stood, somewhat at attention in front of the Hyuuga clan head, close at his heels was a sentient Branch Hyuuga, no doubt an escort.

"How may I help you?"

The anbu answered in a level tone. "Lord Hokage wished for you to receive this letter." He retrieved a note of seemingly nowhere and handed to him before using a body flicker to leave. Both Hyuuga were unsurprised. The anbu tended to act like nothing more than just clocks. Just doing their duty without unnecessary comment or action.

The branch member left as well but used a more conventional means through the door, leaving Hiashi alone again.

He opened the Hokage's seal that kept the document glued to seal itself together. The document could hardly be called a note, let alone a letter. It was short and yet profound. The whole message was written as if it were a little ditty:

' _The man from back then has come back again. Make sure to be on time at nine tonight. He hopes there will be no fuss over what we shall discuss. Solo is the way to go.'_

Hiashi closed his eyes. No doubt that the Hokage was an avid reader of poetry and decided to code the letter like that of one. The message was clear to him though, although that could be to the cause that the message involved him.

'Hmm. It probably means that the man that rescued Hinata has returned and wishes to speak to the Sandaime and myself about the favors we did for him. Noble and selfless they may be, they feel… suspicious, considering that he said he doesn't pledge loyalty to Konoha. So I must meet with them at nine pm tonight and I must come without escorts or bodyguards of any sort.'

Hiashi got all of his relevant documents ready and looked to the clock. He had better find something to do until then. It was only midday.

 **With Naruto**

" **Seems brilliant. We'll have the elemental bunshins practice your affinity. They need to go away to the elemental nations, learning and practice to bring up their affinities. What's next?"**

"The next thing to do? Nah. We gotta get some sort of...insurance first. The clones will disperse when the chakra comes out. I have two theories. Perhaps the clone can pull on your chakra from the seal or we make them with your chakra in the first place."

" **Try it."**

Naruto created a shadow clone and mentally commanded him to pull on Kurama's chakra. The fox inside the seal felt the tug somewhat but it was like a light switch. The switch was now set to 'on' but it had no electricity to power it.

" **He can't do it. Try to make a clone with my chakra."**

Naruto tried to pull on the chakra. He strained but he only entered a feral state. He could not create a long lasting clone, partially because even though the clone was made, he was destroyed in one hit.

Not very practical.

He quickly deactivated his tail less state, lest he alarm the whole village to his usage of the Kyuubi's chakra.

 **"The only other alternative is for me to take over and create a shadow clone with your chakra imbued with my youki. But that is sure to panic the village and draw unnecessary attention to ourselves. We would have to leave the village first and do it at first convenience when alone."**

"Yeah. Let's move on to improve our general training then. I have it all planned out. The Taijutsu I created-"

" **Which I inspired you to create by being passively-aggressive."**

"Indeed. It relies mainly on defense, counters and parrying with the tanto in kenjutsu. I may need to create one based on attacking. There will be times I will need to be the aggressor. I can't always wait for my combatants to come to me. It won't be too hard, though. All I really need is an attacking stance and then extend that into new katas for later. I'll try to design it later. Perhaps it will come to me then. But now, I need to gain knowledge." He created two shadow clones and flooded them with chakra in the process.

'I need you two to go to the library and read everything, including every bingo book.'

The clones nodded to the 'unspoken' command and went to the library.

 **AN - (While it may seem difficult and unrealistic, if one has the ability to remember everything in addition to understanding all the ideas a book extends, coupled along with the mental focus to be able to stay loyal to that task, one should be able to read all the books and articles a library contains. After all, it isn't impossible; a library is finite, not infinite.)**

" **Hmm. Next we have traps and espionage."**

Naruto was in deep thought. "I can… learn how to create excellent traps through bookwork and practical experience but espionage… that's going to have to be a learnt skill, moving silently in a terrain that only promotes noise with every step taken. I'll know that skill is up there when I can sneak up on an elite jounin. I'll… have to create that clone outside the village. Next."

" **Medical and Assassination."**

"As much as I can't believe it, I read that medic nin are sometimes a lot more important than even the elite jounin or those on the shinobi council. In times of war, battles were won because of how competent the medics of different platoons were. This one is going to need a lot of work. It's also the reason I chose it over genjutsu. Even if I am susceptible to extreme forms of genjutsu, I should be able to be release myself from it if my clones channel chakra into my network using their chakra, or killing the caster. Anyway, I can create this clone now to get the basic knowledge now and create a permanent one later. I assume clones in the library will read basic medical books and remedies but I need something higher up the ladder."

" **Kage bunshin no jutsu!** " he created the cross shaped ram seal and created a clone.

"Go to the hospital and insist to look in on the operating theatre. Ask while in a henge as a chunin ninja. Also, ask if you could get to read any medical books they have. If they ask why, tell them you want to become a medical ninja," he ordered.

The clone nodded. "You got it boss." The clone shunshinned off to Konoha's hospital.

"Alright, assassination. I can have clones train in versatility with any kind of weapons and killing techniques. Heh, this is also where an extensive knowledge of the human body comes in. I guess everything really ties in together, huh? After all, most of the time espionage and killing ties in together."

" **Indeed. Next, we have interrogation and torture."**

Naruto seethed a little, remembering his past. "For once, my injuries in the past are going to come in handy. I won't be squeamish when it comes to inflicting pain or using mind games on opponents." He gritted his teeth. "I can go over there now. I have nothing better to do. Scouting and sensoring- I'll think of something later. Kurama, I'm going to make this team and I'm going to follow through with it. Even though I may be placed on a genin team, I know I will probably have a better one watching my own back- a team comprised entirely of physical manifestations of myself." Naruto smirked. "Sounds a bit pathetic, relying solely on myself, but I- we- will be the best. Whoever said there was no 'I' in team?"

Kurama gave a feral grin from inside his cage.

 **At the Library**

Shinichi replaced the couple of stray books back unto the shelves. There used to be a whole lot more books left out, back when people only amused themselves with reading. But now people had this 'television' and all that technological shit. They had simply no 'time' for reading. What he would give for this whole damn library to burn down so he could let his seventy-something-year-old body retire in peace. There wasn't much to be done anyway. He returned to the desk located at the entrance and was about to lay on the futon he had hid behind it when he heard the door push in, no doubt to let in someone. He groaned.

'Just when I'm about to take a nap, someone just had to come in.'

He peered over the desk and saw two familiar looking people waiting to sign the check in book.

"Huh? Minato?" he queried, a bit unsure. His sight was a bit fleeting. He momentarily thought he was seeing doubles. 'Even more reason to retire.'

"No." They said in unison, as if rehearsed. "My name is Naruto."

"Naruto, huh?" 'Sounds familiar.' "Why are there two of you?"

The clones looked at each other almost in a staring contest of sorts. To the old man, they looked as if they were sharing an unspoken conversation. Which in fact they were.

'Tell him the truth?'

'No. We should lie.'

'And say what?'

'Eh, Identical brothers?'

'Wouldn't work. Let's just go with the truth, tell him we're clones. If he kicks us out, we'll just come back in different henges and work with that. After all, he couldn't even recognize us as clones; he won't recognize us as two different people, anyway.'

'Okay. Let's just roll with it.'

"We're clones." One of them said.

"Clones?" One of the man's eyebrows rose, no doubt doing some thinking. 'Sounds familiar.' Then something in his mind clicked.

"Minato? Is that you, sending your clones to read for you again?" the man asked, a bit testily.

'Is he talking about the fourth?' "No. Sorry old man, he… passed on around thirteen years ago. Gomen." One of the clones replied, hoping the two weren't too close. He did not want to see an old man in tears, receiving knowledge more than a decade late.

"No… its alright. So, someone sent you to read for them huh? Are you going to stay overnight?" the man asked, as if expecting to hear 'yes'.

"Hai."

"Minato did this with me, you know. I'll let you stay in the library for as long as you exist, weeks, if needs be. And all I ask in return is that you help out when I'm unable to. Sounds fair?" the old man asked, pleadingly.

Naruto's clones regarded the librarian for a moment. "Hai. We accept."

"Good. I'll talk with you a little later. My futon is calling me."

"O…K… What should I call you?"

"Shinichi. You can call me Shinichi."

 **At the hospital**

Kuri sighed and fell into her chair at her station in the nurses' office, desperate to have a minute to herself. Her shifts as a fresh Nurse at the hospital were the very definition of murder. If she didn't carry more money home at the end of the month, she was going to go home and **stay** there. There were some days she didn't know why she even stayed here, being pressured by her father to work at the hospital. Sure, she liked to help people but right now, nothing was going right. Suddenly, the air conditioning unit sputtered and died.

She went over to it and fiddled with its dials but nothing worked. She banged it, pleaded with it, threatened it; but nothing worked. "Why now? No, no, no! Why me?"

She gave up and went downstairs. If she couldn't get comfortable indoors, she would simply try sitting out in the small garden at the back, she mused. 'One's as good as the other.'

She opened the Hospital's front entrance and bumped into a young man who had appeared to have chosen that same moment to enter the hospital as well.

'Oh Kami, why me?' She was exasperated. Today must have been an off day for her.

"Oh! Gomenasai, I wasn't paying attention. Gomen." He apologized profusely, hoping that he didn't offend her.

"No! It's… it's alright." She replied. She hoped he wasn't an important figure, because she did not need any more bullshit to put up with.

They both picked themselves up and observed each other for a moment.

'A chunin?' He nondescript, nothing special going on for him. Five feet nine, Spiky brown hair that framed a round face with a pointed chin.

'A nurse?' She was dressed in the usual nurse's garb. She had straight black hair that fell to her shoulders with lovely teal eyes. She had a fair complexion with complimented her sharply outlined face that was smoothed over with a minimal amount of fat. She currently had her arms folded which pronounced her already impressive bosom. All in all, even though being civilian born and in medical nurse's clothes, she was an attractive woman.

"Excuse me, I am hoping this isn't a bad time but I would like to know where to go so I can learn some medical techniques. I would…"

"Sorry, can't help you. I'm not really up there on the medical staff ladder and besides, no one even has the time to scratch their own heads, let alone teach someone. I don't think any of us can help you."

The young chunin was crestfallen but brightened a little after some thinking.

"Perhaps you could put in a good word for me to someone who could help me then? Or I could assist you in something somewhere, so you could have some time to help me? I really don't want to become cannon fodder." He said in a sympathizing tone.

'Hmm. I could use his help.' "Tell you what; if you can fix an A.C. unit upstairs I'll make some time for you." She said, hoping to enlist his help.

'It seems sound.' "Alright, get me the manual and I'll fix it. By the way, what's your name?"

"Kuri. And yours?"

He gave it some thought. "Naruzu."

"That's unusual. Ok. Follow me Naruzu-san."

And so the clone of Naruto Uzumaki did.

 **With Naruto, home.**

"That woman is disturbed. Why the hell did she do that?"

" **I believe she is a nymphomaniac."** The Kyuubi answered.

Naruto searched in his head for the definition. "Nope. She's just a maniac. Period."

The fox sighed. **"So you didn't enjoy her rubbing up on you?"** He smirked a little.

Naruto sat on the bed, bracing up himself on his knees with his head hanging down. "Kind of. I'm not all that mature yet though. Otherwise I would have passed out from a nosebleed."

" **That reminds me. We need to work on your poker face as well as your killing intent tolerance. Remember when Mizuki withstood our killing intent?"**

"Yeah. But that was a lot of killing intent. Not too much, nut it should have been enough for a chunin."

" **He was probably exposed to killing intent on a regular basis. This Orichimaru of the sannin is a serious character though. What's his last name, though?"**

"Who gives a damn? I'm coming in."

Naruto lay down on the bed and retreated to the mindscape. He immediately saw the great fox sitting on his haunches, expecting him.

" **I am grateful for focus. It used to take you at least half an hour to meditate long enough to get in here."**

"Let's just do it!"

Naruto was immediately blasted with killing intent.

 **Crappy chapter, I know. Guess this is what happens when I let the story get too cold from when I went on break. You'll get the next chapter on Monday, maybe Tuesday. The reason for this is because I need to plan the hokage's mystery meeting as well as Naruto's final genin exam, you know, like the bell test.**

 **I also want to say that I'm not bashing anyone. Not Sasuke, not the girls, not Kiba. I could have made something bad happen to them when they interacted with Naruto. "…placed her in a half turn and pushed her away from him. – (but she couldn't stop her momentum and slammed her head into the far wall.)" That's one example I could have bashed her in the last chapter. Or having Sasuke fight Naruto and losing badly. I also try to make Sasuke a bit less arrogant and recognize his own shortcomings. But not brotherly to Naruto. Be sure of that. Two clues were dropped in this chapter. Just follow the breadcrumbs (Or do I want you to think you know what's happening?) Well, that's all folks.**

 **Sayonara.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Well, here is chapter 12. I hope you will enjoy the examinations that I planned and… reveal some stuff. Just a tease, if nothing else.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

The Hyuuga sat patiently, waiting for their 'guest' to arrive. The Hyuuga looked to the Sandaime Hokage who was currently seated by his large desk that tied into his title. Both men were yet to speak to each other and that served to make things more awkward between them. Frankly, Hiashi was going to leave the second 9:01 pm begun; he was an important official, as well as the Sarutobi himself. They had no time to waste, especially with someone whose identity was yet to be discovered.

Suddenly, the clock hit nine pm and in that same second a man appeared in the center of the room via a body flicker. He was dressed as before, not a single hair out of place.

"Konbanwa Hokage-sama, Lord Hiashi. I trust I have not been tardy." The man stated.

"Konbanwa… may we have your name? It would make things flow more smoothly." The Hiruzen requested.

"A name? You may call me Seigen."

"Seigen? Sounds unusual," Hiashi said.

"That's because I made it up," the now named Seigen answered. "I wouldn't want for you to know my true name or identity yet."

"This can only breed distrust. You know our true names, why can't we know yours?" The Hyuuga complained.

"You both are high-profile people. It's not as if you can recreate your identity anytime you wish."

"Enough." The Sandaime interjected. "We're here to discuss Seigen-san's interests in this village."

"Hai. That's true. If you are really not affiliated with any village, why show such interest in ours?" Hiashi probed.

"That… is none of your concern." Seigen said evenly, much to the Hyuuga's ire.

"Seigen-san, we are here to discuss the results of your… requests roughly two and a half years ago." Sarutobi continued.

"Ah, yes. So, how is the soup kitchen getting along?"

"It's doing well, if I may say so myself. The lesser fortunate that flock to it amazes me sometimes. The building has also been expanded so it can accommodate the sick or infirm among them; no worries there. As per financing is concerned, the Hyuuga clan has given quite a bit of funding since its opening. I believe that many of the people who frequent it are the people who suffered during the Kyuubi's attack. Some of them are even willing to injure themselves to sleep there in a warm bed."

"Is it possible for the Hyuuga to fund a little more for expanding just a bit more? I am sure that Lord Hiashi would dip just a little deeper. I believe that about fifty futons next to and around each other would do the job efficiently. The futons could simply be put away in the day." Seigen stated.

"This is going a bit too far, Seigen-san. We Hyuuga don't have an unlimited amount of money in our treasury. If we have much more of this… so-called charitable funding we will have to dip into our emergency fund, which was set aside for our own survival or if other needs be." Hiashi argued. 'Does he think we have bottomless pockets?'

"Hai. You're right. Perhaps if you were to look out the window and activate your byakugan you would see that there are people who are far needier than you are. You seem to have on expensive new robes. Perchance if you went hungry for a few days you would realize how superfluous extravagant worldly possessions are. They have no clothes, no food, no warm beds. We see them everyday, and yet we try to ignore their situation. So you say you are hesitant. Perhaps if you were to have lost more than just your first heiress Lady Hinata you would have been giving a lot more in gratitude. I suppose it can't be helped."

Hiashi seemed…regretful.

"I will release you from any debt you owe me. You have done enough. So I will give you a new proposition. I will do the Hyuuga clan one service- a mission if you will, into any situation, no matter how underhanded, futile or suicidal it may be. Do we have an accordance?"

"How can I be sure you will get the job done if I go through with this?" The clan head was skeptical.

"As much as I dislike boasting, I am currently a borderline S rank ninja. This hinges mainly on my durability, chakra capacity and… something else. I cannot reveal anymore."

"I am still doubtful."

"You should still be ashamed, having to be bought to help the less fortunate. I merely used the incident all those years ago to help both of you to have some humanitarian ideals. And yet… you refuse my offer?"

'True. I never stop to think about those people before. It is also pleasing to see Hitomi happy with those; my charitable actions. Even if I don't accept his offer now, she will probably take the money and help the people anyway. "I accept Seigen-san."

Seigen reached into his coat and retrieved a sheet of paper with a seal on it. "This is a summoning seal. Simply lay it on the ground and focus your chakra into it. I will appear in a matter of seconds." He then gave it to the emotionless Hyuuga, who put it away carefully.

"You don't say," The hokage looked on at the development with an approving nod.

"Moving on. What of the orphanage?"

"The orphanage… It's doing well at the moment. It has roughly twenty children at present. It doesn't seem to be growing."

"That's actually a good thing. Having fewer orphans, that is. It was usually higher." Seigen stated sounding relieved, showing true emotion in his tone for the first time.

"The Sarutobi clan has made it per your instructions and it has helped to keep such children off the streets." The Hokage smiled. "I have visited the children myself and I have told them that it was you who built it. If I told them you were here-"

"Perhaps another time, one with more convenience and less risks," Seigen interrupted.

"But the orphanage is starting to dilapidate a little. Nothing my clan cannot assist with, of course. It would serve me well to continue funding the orphanage. Your concern for the orphans had demonstrated how little my concern had been for the village's future generation was."

"Hokage-sama, here." Seigen gave him one of the seals as well. "I'm sure that you will most certainly use that in the near future, knowing the extensive variety of missions all ninja take. I think you should have one just for the fact that you recognize the lesser fortunate's needs."

The Hokage took it from him and mused. 'Perhaps I'll get Jiraiya to look it over.'

"Well, I'll be making my leave. Hiashi-sama..."

"Hai?" The man answered.

"Don't waste it." And so the final word was said, Seigen faded from view.

"Well, I shall call it a night as well." Hiashi stood and stretched. "I have to see about my clan's finances."

"Mine as well."

The Hokage put all of his documents and important things away, turned off the overhead light and followed the Hiashi out the door, leaving the dark room behind them.

 **With Naruto, Monday.**

'So yeah. How do you like the scenery in there now?'

Kurama sat down in the new mindscape. The general outlook had changed from bleary to cheery. Instead, the leaking pipes that had criss-crossed a dark flooded sewer had been substituted for a grassy plain with a rather large tree in the middle that was big enough to shelter under, even if there were two of himselves. There was enough light but it carried no heat. Very comfortable.

" **I like it. It truly feels like I earned it by doing 100 favors for you. As I've said before…"**

'…Nothing is free.'

"… **Nothing is free."** They finished at the same time.

" **Hai. Arigato."**

'There were times I feel like you cheated me to get to a hundred quicker.'

" **I'm a kitsune; deal with it. I didn't want to put up with that shithole of a mindscape a day longer than I had to."**

Naruto rolled his eyes mentally. 'Whatever.'

Naruto walked into his classroom and took his seat quietly. Unfortunately a certain boy couldn't leave damn well enough alone.

"Oi! Dead-last! This class today is only for those who passed. And who the hell died to get you that hitai ate?!" Kiba shouted, now getting the attention of the whole class.

Naruto ignored the insult but Shino noticed that Iruka visibly flinched when Kiba made his last boisterous statement. He would have to find out why later.

Shikamaru yawned and observed the development. He remembered his conversation with Naruto on Friday. The blonde himself had sounded so sure that he was going to fail and Shikamaru had learned that he had, in fact failed. But here he was, forehead protector and all.

Sasuke noticed Naruto for the first time without his goggles. 'Sentimental value my ass. He must have been hiding his forehead. If he loved his goggles enough to stay in a tree for three hours he would have worn them today and wear his forehead protector somewhere else.'

'What to say? Can't tell them about what happened about Mizuki. What's the closest thing to the truth?' "Naruto passed because he was able to create clones after all. That's why he's here." Iruka lied smoothly, hoping they would buy it. Naruto shared a look with his teacher; the Aburame didn't miss it.

'Something's going on…'

"Anyway, you are all registered genin. So be quiet and act like it! I'll read out team placements in a minute." Umino went on, glancing at Naruto. He still seemed indifferent. 'Where did I go wrong?' He waited for the class to hush themselves before taking out the folder with the team information out of his desk and begun to read.

Naruto listened to the team placements for one through to six. It was just as he had predicted. All the civilian scores had really rounded off themselves so they would all be placed on balanced teams. Damn. He loved being a smart ass.

" **Tell me about it."** Kurama added in his two cents.

"… and that's team six. Your sensei is…" Iruka droned.

'Ok, Kurama. Let's see if I'm right about the rookie placements.'

…"Sakura Haruno, Kiba Inuzuka and Sasuke Uchiha will form Team 7. Your jounin sensei is Kakashi Hatake."

"What the hell, Iruka-sensei? How am I on the faggot and fan girl's team? Can't I get to be on some other team?!" Kiba complained.

"Shut up Inu-baka! You should have been grateful to be on Sasuke-kun's team!"

"Hn." The 'last' Uchiha was displeased. If anything, he would have wanted Naruto on his team. 'At least he's more competent of late than the rest of these so-called 'rookie' trash.'

"Kiba, the teams were created by an averaged score. We create the teams based on average. Sakura and Sasuke had the best scores while yours was… abysmal at best. If anything, they're picking up **your** slack. Frankly, if we didn't have either of the rookies-of-the-year **you** would have failed the program. Now be quiet." Iruka humiliated the Inuzuka while the class laughed at him.

Kiba sat down again in disappointment while Naruto smirked. 'Let the chips fall where they may…'

"Next squad will be composed of Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga …"

'Time for the moment of truth Kurama.'

" **Shut up. I want to hear what he's saying."**

"…And Naruto Uzumaki. Your Jounin sensei is Kurenai Yuhi. You will compose team 8."

" **Well, well, well. Someone was right on the money. It seems to me that you do have a good head on your shoulders after all."**

Naruto sighed. 'Was there any doubt?'

" **My friend, the doubt itself was bigger than my actual size."**

"Team nine is still in circulation. Team 10 is Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka. Your jounin sensei is Asuma Sarutobi."

'Correct to the letter.' Naruto smirked.

"You shall wait for jounin senseis in room 4. They will arrive just after lunch hour. You may leave."

 **With Team 8, Lunch time.**

"Has anyone ever heard of her before?" Naruto put the question out to his teammates.

Shino pushed up his glasses before responding. "I believe she may be the upcoming genjutsu mistress of Konoha," he said simply.

"H-hai. She is a g-good friend of my k-k-kaa-chan." Hinata stuttered a bit.

'Heh. Genjutsu you say, huh? At least I won't be susceptible to it anytime soon. Right Kurama?'

" **No. If I keep helping you, you won't really grow."**

'Why start refusing help now?' Naruto was confused.

" **One, because it's the right thing to do…"**

'And?'

" **I don't have to suck up to you anymore doing favors."**

"The first reason was enough." Naruto muttered.

"Excuse me?" The Aburame lifted an eyebrow.

Naruto caught himself quickly. "Both reasons are enough. That's what I said."

Shino was skeptical but didn't push it. "As in?"

"Um… she is a genjutsu user and must be quite proficient in it if she is dubbed as its mistress. That means that she will fight dominantly with it instead of other techniques."

"I see."

"And," Naruto pointed at Hinata who blushed a little. "If she is on such good terms with your family, perhaps it would serve us well to know what kind of character she has or any kind of notable background."

"I've b-been told from my k-kaa-chan that she was very good friends with Kurenai's father when they were on the same team but he d-d-died in the Kyuubi attack. She a-also has an intense d-dislike for perverts." Hinata said.

"Uh huh. Interesting. Anything else?" He tapped his chin with a forefinger.

"No N-Naruto-kun."

'Perhaps it would improve relations with our future sensei if I told her that you apologize for your actions.'

' **I was being manipulated by that Uchiha! Would you punish a child for not behaving itself when it was given a written warning even though he was illiterate? It's not my fault!"**

'Wouldn't hurt.'

" **Wouldn't really help either. What's done was done.'**

The bell rung to signal the end of lunchtime and everyone filed inside to room 4. While there, everyone waited for their own senseis in their own way. Some slept, (Shikamaru), some muttered to their ninja creatures (Kiba, Shino), and yet some others just sat and imagined their future instructors. (Sakura)

Soon, there were only three teams left who were still waiting when the door was pushed in by two people. The female of the two had a fair complexion and she had very distinct red eyes, which were complimented by purple eye shadow and red lipstick. She possessed long black hair that reached her upper back. She wore red mesh armor blouse which only had one sleeve that went in tandem with bandages that wrapped from her upper torso to her knees. The man was fairly tall with a somewhat brown complexion with brown eyes, short spiky black hair and a beard. He wore a standard jounin jacket that had bandages around the sleeves. He also wore a sash around his waist had the kanji for 'fire' on it.

Naruto's eyes widened. 'No…'

"Team 8?" The woman asked. She threw a look at the Uzumaki that everyone noticed.

Naruto was grim.

"My name is Kurenai Yuhi. I will be your jounin sensei. Meet me in the-"

" **Hell** **no**!" Someone exclaimed, slamming his hands on the desk and stood.

Everyone turned to take notice of the yeller, none other than Naruto himself.

"I want no part of this team if it means having to put up with her being my sensei!"

Kurenai was silent.

"Naruto-san, what is wrong?" Shino asked. Hinata was also surprised to see Naruto behave in such a manner. He was cheeky, but never an outright rebel.

"Nothing is wrong." Naruto said through clenched teeth. "Everything is peachy."

"Gaki, what's wrong? Why don't you want her for your sensei? Do you think we have to let you be a genin?" The man said. 'Don't have to tell them about that test yet.'

"Actually, yes. You do have to let me be a genin. After all, if Kumo were to attack Konoha with a couple of jinchuriki…" Naruto trailed off. He knew about the S ranked secret. (Knowledge is power!) The jounin got the message. Their expressions grew cold.

The students didn't.

"Asuma. Let's not waste time with him. Let him be." Kurenai said to the now-named Asuma.

"What?" the man was baffled.

"Yeah. That's right. Just keep doing what you did Thursday." Naruto said loudly.

"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?!" Kiba was completely confused and befuddled.

"From what I can gather, Naruto is upset with Kurenai-sensei due to some incident on Thursday. Judging from what was said, Naruto must be loathe to the fact that she may have ignored him on some matter of importance." Shino explained.

"Hit the nail right on the head Shino." Naruto said, still looking at the red eyed woman.

Kurenai breathed slowly, trying to relax. She tried telling the hokage something like this would happen but he still told her to do it. Her first encounter with him didn't go well because she had blown him off when he asked for bunshin Ninjutsu help. Perhaps she would have helped him if the creature that resided in him hadn't killed Shinku Yuhi, her father. She didn't even want this boy on her team but his scores had perfectly rounded off her other students' scores being second to last in his class, despite reports of him being the strongest genin of his generation straight from the Hokage's mouth.

"Look… Naruto. Even if you don't want Kurenai as your sensei-" The Sarutobi began.

"You stay out of this! You did the same thing too. Everyone of you people are all the same! Will of fire? Hah!" Naruto spat.

"Suddenly, the offended jounin was in front of Naruto and lifted him by his shirt collar. "You will show respect to your superiors, brat. Now either go with Kurenai," He looked to the woman by the door. "Or sit out another year in the Academy." Asuma said unnervingly, leaking just enough KI to frighten any and all genin present.

Naruto wasn't fazed. He merely looked over to Kiba, as if deliberately ignoring the man lifting him up bodily.

"Hey Kiba. Looks like you can leave team 7 and join team 8. Seems more your type anyway."

All around there were whisperings of the development; of how Naruto was willing to sit out a third tenure in the academy.

"But even so," he continued. "In a class of 27 being split into nine teams, subtracting myself from that equation will upset that balance. That means…"

"Two of us are going to have to sit out another year with him. Either that or he passes with us. A team has to start with three genin. How troublesome this is." Shikamaru said aloud, shocking the rest of the group present.

'Why is Naruto-kun so bitter?' Hinata thought."

Naruto poofed away, indicating that he was a shadow clone.

"Kage bunshin?"

'Hn. Looks like Naruto really would have been a better teammate than the mutt here.' The Uchiha thought, observing the development.

Naruto was sitting in the swing outside when his clone's memories came to him. He had suspected that his sensei would have been one of the jounin that had ignored him on Thursday. He remembered her well. She had told him to 'leave her alone' and that she had other things to do besides his 'trivial' matters.

'Well, Kurama. Guess you're right. Forgive and forget really is impossible for me.'

" **Told you."**

Naruto sighed. How was it supposed to be easy for him to forget all the wrongs done to him when he could remember everything vividly as if it happened a minute before. Anyone who preached love and forgiveness must have never had memory like his. Why was everything so god-damn complicated?

Kiba came out of the school with his ninken Akamaru by his side. The dog had his nose close to the ground, apparently tracking a scent. Naruto watched them look over to him and gestured to his dog, pointing at the Uzumaki's position. Naruto continued watching them when Kiba crouched down and patted his dog and allowed him to jump onto his head, before the two came over. Kiba then took a seat on a tree root beside the whiskered boy.

They sat there in silence for three minutes before Kiba tried to break it.

"So what was that all about, Naruto?" Kiba asked.

"What was what?" Naruto feigned ignorance. He knew what he meant. He was merely trying to delay this talk, least of all with Kiba of all people.

"That shit you just pulled in there! It's just one big awful mess in there! People are in there arguing who sits out another year with you! What the fuck's that all about?!" Kiba yelled.

Naruto groaned inwardly. There was just no going around this. "I'll explain myself, but only if you listen patiently and speak in a more reasonable tone."

The Inuzuka still felt put out by the 'new' Naruto. Nonetheless, he would go along. He still wanted some answers.

"Ok." He spoke quietly.

"You remember the test on Friday? I failed the exam because I couldn't create three bunshins?" Naruto started.

"Heh heh. Who could forget that? You're the only who failed that." Kiba chuckled.

Naruto wasn't amused. "You're the only one to fail the written exam." Naruto said, much to Kiba's chagrin.

"I… just didn't get a chance to study, that's all. I was polishing my taijutsu. Still passed though."

The kitsune inside the seal who was listening in on the conversation was impressed. His container's ability to read people was scary good.

Naruto smirked inwardly. "Yeah. Anyway, I knew I was probably going to fail that part of the Ninjutsu exam so I went around asking for help. I asked a lot of ninja, including those two ninja but they all refused."

"Heh. I get it. You're angry because that red eyed woman who was supposed to be your sensei now didn't even give you the time of day before." Kiba could relate somewhat. No one really helped him with his training until he was named clan heir when his sister didn't want the training.

"Yeah." Naruto appreciated the fact that Kiba wasn't thick all the time.

"Alright. But that doesn't explain that you can create clones now. Even the man grabbed your clone and said 'kage bunshin'. What kind of clone is that? Who helped you?"

Naruto sighed. "No one helped me. I…learnt the technique on my own. If you don't know how I got to learn it, then you're probably not meant to know. It's… a bit of a secret." Naruto said quietly. He quickly made a clone and told Kiba to take a punch from it. The ignorant Inuzuka complied, thinking that it would pass by him. Fortunately, the clone decided to just thump the boy on the shoulder instead of causing real damage.

"Kuso! That's impressive! Can I learn it?"

"Uh… no. I have a certain ability that enables me to create them now. You probably won't be able to create them until you're about, say, fifteen years old."

Kiba was about to argue when Naruto interrupted him. "Not because you can't do it. It's because the process can kill you."

Kiba shut up. 'Maybe kaa-san can tell me about it later. Maybe she even knows about Naruto's so-called ability.'

"But still. Maybe you could just forgive and forget even this time huh?" Naruto growled when he heard that. "I don't think its fair for to hold a grudge against a teacher to the point of making two of us sit it out with you for another year. Damn it! Even Hinata's crying in there thinking she won't progress in there you know? Other people have to put up with your shit too, you know?"

"Not fair? NOT FAIR?! Where the hell the shopkeepers when I needed food? Where the hell's the orphanage when I needed someone to care? WHERE THE FUCK IS HELP WHEN I'M ABOUT TO GET MURDERED?! You need to get your facts straight before you come talk to me what is or isn't fair!" Naruto blew his stack but was coming down from his emotional high. "For all I know, you could be the one who's worried for his position, given the fact that you're dead last in the class right now."

"Damn, Naruto. People tell me I'm a prick but you… you're acting even worse. I don't know what the hell your problem is but don't take it out on me." Kiba stood up and dusted the seat of his pants and left without so much as a backwards glance.

" **You know, he's right about that,"** Kurama suddenly said.

'What?'

" **I mean let it go. Everyone is really getting wary of you now."**

'So?'

" **You'll lose your hitai ate if the hokage thinks you're unstable because of your anger."**

'Then what about the Uchiha?' Naruto asked.

" **I've never seen him lose his temper. However, you lost it in there. And you are known to have a certain nine tail fox jailed in you. It won't look good for you to get angry. I mean if the Hokage was watching that little spat between you and Kiba, he'd start thinking that the seal was breaking or something."**

'He would think that, not necessarily act on a hunch. He is dubbed as 'The Professor' you know. He'd want to get his facts straight first.'

" **Well, at least join the team. You're depriving your teammates of a chance to further their careers,"** the fox argued.

'I'm postponing their deaths.'

" **You're starting to sound really selfish."**

'Me? Selfish? Am I being judged by a biju who nearly leveled the whole village?' Naruto chuckled.

" **Be that as it may, just join the team. You can quit it at any time…"**

'I don't quit.'

" **Fine. You can** _ **leave**_ **the team or threaten to** _ **leave**_ **the ninja program. After all, to lose their own jinchuriki would make them lose an edge in heavy conflict. They would straighten that Yuhi woman if she doesn't live up to your expectations."**

Naruto stopped to think about that suggestion. It sounded reasonable. If worse came to worse, they would simply replace the sensei or put him on another team.

'Alright. But let me see what's happening first. I'll send a clone.'

" **Just go as yourself."**

'But-'

" **Go!"** The Kyuubi roared.

Naruto went back inside the school and made his way back to class. He knew that they couldn't try to harm them. If they did, he would simply flash Kurama's red eyes as his own to intimidate them.

He pushed open the door to see Kurenai sitting beside Hinata who was disheveled alongside Shino. Team seven seated themselves on the far side of the room but team ten and that supposed 'Asuma' gone.

'Perhaps Hinata was really crying. Not by tears, but merely by being distraught. But it seems that this woman shares a close bond with Hinata through her mother.'

The Uzumaki took his seat warily beside his team and waited for someone to speak. And sure enough, Kurenai did.

"Naruto…" she began.

"Hmm?"

"I apologize. I'm sorry-"

"Sorry for blowing me off? Or sorry that you won't get to have Hinata?" The boy glared.

Kurenai stopped. There was a troubling thought. But she won't lie, regardless of the consequences. "For Hinata."

"Thought so. Nonetheless, I've been convinced by someone to suffer being on a team with you as my sensei so as to not deprive my teammates of a genin squad."

Kiba who had been listening lifted his hand triumphantly.

"Not you Kiba," said Naruto, not even looking at the Inuzuka. "Someone else."

"Who is this person?" Shino asked.

"I'm not at liberty to say. Shall we go Kurenai- _sensei_?" Naruto could barely say the last part.

Kurenai observed him for a bit longer. She was told that he was happy-go-lucky. Perhaps the Mizuki incident had changed him more than they had originally thought. She stood up and beckoned for them to follow her. Perhaps if they got to know each other they would have a smoother relationship.

Not that she wanted to. Hokage's orders.

 **With Team 8, training ground 4.**

"So tell me about yourselves. Name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams. Shino, why don't you start first?"

They were all seated on a convenient log in front of their sensei who chose to stand. At present, they were going through some mini introductions that were supposed to improve team synergy.

"My name is Shino Aburame. I like to spend time organizing and cataloging insects I come across. I dislike those who misjudge myself and my clan. My likes and hobbies are the same. My dream is to become a good clan head."

Naruto gave Shino a friendly fist bump on the Aburame's shoulder. "You don't like people who misjudge you? I think we're gonna get along just fine. I won't judge you if you don't judge me."

'What? Why would he be judged? This must be tied to the conversation I had my insects eavesdrop on when he was speaking to Kiba.' "Very well, Naruto-san."

"Alright. Hinata, why don't you go next?" Kurenai suggested.

"H-hai. My n-name is Hinata Hyuuga. I like b-b-being with my parents and I like c-cinnamon buns. My dislikes are those who those who think my k-kindness is weakness and I don't like m-m-my family's segregation with the seal. My hobbies are flower pressing. My dream is to…" She looked at Naruto and blushed deeply. "N-n-never mind."

Naruto blinked and shrugged. Inside the seal, the monstrous Kitsune sighed. Even with his spiked intelligence, Naruto was still a complete **dunce**. Perhaps he would learn something about love when the library clones finally dispelled.

"Since it's my turn, I'll just start. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like to train, reading and increasing my overall prowess, including mental. After all, knowledge is power. My dislikes are those who judge me, including biased teachers due to my… status." He stared at the teacher but she ignored him. "My hobbies and likes are the same. My… ambition? I'll let you know when it's achieved." He said vaguely.

"Alright." Kurenai clapped her hands. "The three of you have one final test. The original plan was to have the three of you to attack me using teamwork by attempting to take these bells," she took two bells from her weapon's pouch. "But all three of you know due to the earlier incident in room 4 that a team has to have three students under a teacher. So instead, I want all three of you to fight me with the intent to kill. I wish to see your current level of progress. I'll call the session quits if I've seen enough." The red-eyed woman looked to her students seeing them all ready themselves in some fashion. Shino whispered, probably to his insects. Hinata turned on her byakugan and Naruto performed the ram seal to call forth his chakra.

"Begin!"

Shino and Hinata jumped into the trees to hide while Naruto… sat back on the log.

Yuhi glared at the boy. "Well?"

"Oh. The test stops when you say you've seen enough. I can already beat a chunin, that much is clear. Unless you wish for me to level this whole training ground, I probably won't go for a kill yet." He stood and stretched. "Yet."

Kurenai scoffed. "You level this whole training ground?" She doubted it. Even if he beat Mizuki, the chunin's skills were slightly dulled. But he only made genin. She only knew that he made genin and that he now knew his status. Perhaps he could have learnt something dangerous from the scroll of seals. After all, she saw him make a shadow clone. Who's to say he hadn't learnt others?

Naruto smirked. "I don't want to be arrogant or worship myself. You'll find out soon anyway."

He formed the cross ram seal and six clones formed around him. 'You guys know what to do. Lightning, fight her with the baton. Enforce it with raiton chakra. If it hits her, she'll get electrocuted. Water, fight her with the tanto. She'll think your more dangerous and try to take you out first. You'll get her wet. If that fails, the Iwa clone will try to hold her legs using the (double decapitation suicide) while the wind clone will do a collaboration jutsu with the fire clone. I'll throw weapons from afar.'

'Hai' (x6)

The woman watched Naruto and his clones just stand there before two of them came to fight her while another three jumped into the tress.

'Which one is real?'

The one with the tanto made a horizontal swipe with it in no predetermined stance. The clone did it on purpose, allowing the woman to easily dispose of him. But she didn't. She toyed with him; making fun of his earlier bashful statement.

She played right into it.

"This is… pathetic."

Suiton clone had no response except to continue slashing at her wildly. She quickly took out her kunai and parried a slash aimed at her throat. 'He really intended to follow through with killing me.'

The boy had both his hands on his tanto, his right on the handle and the left on the hilt, **AN - (special gloves people. Imagined them just for this purpose.)** and tried to push her kunai out of the way. But she wasn't an elite jounin for nothing. She let his tanto slide of the kunai, making him waste his pushing effort. She then punched him in the jaw, feeling a bit satisfied even though it was wrong. But her hand came away wet.

"Water bunshin?'

She was suddenly soaked with chakra-created water. She didn't understand the purpose of this but she won't underestimate him. She readied a genjutsu and was about to cast it on herself to make her seem as if she disappeared when she had to suddenly duck a baton. The other clone who had rushed her earlier but stayed out of the action now tried to strike her with his blunt weapon. The woman raised her arm to block it, seeing how it wasn't sharp but she regretted the action. The damn thing hurt like hell. The boy started to subtle channel chakra into it, ensuring that she would more likely be hurt even more if he scored another hit.

The red eyed woman caught the baton on his next swing and kneed him in the gut. She didn't feel any remorse. After all, the boy possessed the spirit that killed her father. It helped to provide some sort of justice. But she received a shocking surprise.

Literally.

(Oh come on, I had to put that in there. :D)

The boy exploded into electricity, electrocuting her.

"Arrgh!" The woman exploded into smoke, revealing that she had substituted for a log. The woman walked out from behind a tree, unscathed.

Naruto lifted an eyebrow from where he watched the woman re-enter the clearing. That's all well and good. He didn't expect to get her on the first try. Suddenly he got memories of the clone he sent to talk to Hinata and Shino. They had agreed to his plan.

He readied three kunai with bomb tags in his right hand. Let everyone wait for the signal.

 **With Kurenai**

The woman watched the final two Naruto's in the clearing. They still hadn't moved. It was a bit unnerving, seeing them just stare at her like that. She wouldn't underestimate him again. He took this a bit too seriously.

The clones jumped apart and started going through hand seals.

" **Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu!** " (Fire release: Fireball technique.) one blew a rather large fireball at her person.

" **Futon: Daitoppa!** " (Wind release: Great Breakthrough) The other shouted and proceeded to blow a gale force wind that kept getting stronger and encircled her. She didn't even blink when the fireball hit the wind maelstrom that turned into a giant inferno.

"Pour it on!" The fire clone yelled, before creating another fire ball. Suddenly three kunai sailed out of the forest canopy into the collaboration jutsu and the tags on them exploded, courtesy of Naruto. That pretty much guaranteed that if Kurenai was in there, she was only coming out in a bag. But she was a jounin, after all. You don't get to that rank by making foolish mistakes.

The two clones dispelled, one into fire and the other into wind, leaving the genin to wait for the smoke to clear so they could see the results.

Kurenai walked out of the still clearing smoke and disappeared.

 **With Naruto**

'Shit! Genjutsu. Where is she?' Naruto looked around and heard fighting to the south end of the training ground. After using chakra to augment his leg muscles, he dashed to a tree that was overlooking the area. It seemed that Hinata and Shino had been discovered and were fighting the red eyed woman. Even though they had had the numerical advantage, they were still too weak to overpower her. The woman danced in and around Hinata's jyuuken strikes and cuffed her in the chest, almost like a push away from herself. The woman then kicked away Shino's right leg in the same breath and punched him in the gut. The hapless boy transformed into a swarm of insects.

Shino suddenly dropped on the branch beside Naruto, startling him.

"Shit!" Naruto hissed fiercely when he saw who it was. "What the hell, Shino?!"

"She has defeated my insect bunshin. Presently, my strongest insects are in her… more hard to reach areas feeding on her chakra. Soon she'll be weak. Do you have a plan?"

"I don't have a plan. Only an idea. But it's overkill. Think I should do it?"

The Aburame studied Naruto. "How powerful?"

"Powerful enough for you to leave this training ground all together."

The Aburame stared at him, trying to look for evidence of a lie, but couldn't find any. 'He's serious.'

"Very well. What do we do?"

"Get Hinata out of here. I'm going to throw kunai and shuriken to stall her."

The Aburame nodded and jumped down to join Hinata.

"Well Kurama, what do you think?"

" **Personally, I think it's too fucking over the top. And that's coming from a biju who razed the village."** The fox suddenly laughed. **"Do it!"**

Naruto grinned. He started chucking all his kunai and shuriken at Kurenai, occupying her while Shino grabbed Hinata and leapt away with her. He started counting to twenty. 'This is going to be a great show of might.'

 **With Kurenai**

She continued dodging weapons thrown at her. Some were thrown aimed at her chest, some at her legs and others around her. It felt as if he was driving her… somewhere. Suddenly, she felt two legs grab her ankles and dragged her underground till only her head was left above ground.

"What?"

Naruto dropped down in front of her and slow-clapped. "Well Kurenai-sensei. Here we are. You are about to find out about my final and most destructive technique."

The woman merely looked at him, uninterested. But she was actually reading a kawarimi if she got an injury.

" **Tajuu kage bunshin no jutsu**!" he formed the ram seal and strained. Soon, his features grew feral, red eyes and whiskers and all.

The woman could no longer feign disinterest. 'Is the seal breaking?'

Suddenly, an immense amount of clones poofed into existence. The woman gasped. It was surreal. The boy was practically his own army. There were probably **thousands** of them. They took up every available space, on the ground, in the trees, EVERYWHERE!

Suddenly the original Naruto shunshinned off while Yuhi still gaped. 'Where is he going?' She did **not** like this situation and she quickly substituted with a nearby clone and got out of hole.

"So this is your plan? To try and overwhelm me with numbers?" She smirked.

"No. If it were that, the boss wouldn't have left. This is far too dangerous."

'What?' The woman grew worried.

Suddenly all the feral clones formed the ram seal and started glowing a faint white. The woman's eyes grew wide when she heard what the clones shouted next.

" **KAGE BUNSHIN DAIBAKUHA**!"


	13. Chapter 13

**Well. Time to get off my ass from goofing off, then sit my ass in my typin' chair to type this chapter. Hope you enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. (Psst! Do I have to write this every chapter?)**

' **Lucky' chapter 13.**

It was a fairly ordinary day in Konohagakure. Business people were haggling, customers buying, Akimichis were eating, and Naras were lazing around and the like. There was absolutely nothing that should, would or could break the peace.

Naruto came out of his shunshin and appeared at training ground three. The boy was about to see if the concept of having a localized and concentrated blast of exploding clones was as capable as he believed. He couldn't wait. Suddenly, he heard a massive shout that was carried over the wind.

"KAGE BUNSHIN DAIBAKUHA!"

Then there was pure, unadulterated silence. Only for a moment.

BOOOOOOOM!

Ultimate chaos ensued and reigned supreme for what seemed for eternity. A massive chakra-created explosion centered in training ground 4 rippled through it, destroying all that was caught up in its maelstrom. The white plume of the explosion that climbed into the sky could be seen by anyone in the village who was outside at the time.

"Hell yesss! BOOM! This tops every jutsu I have ever done or seen!" Naruto was ecstatic. He was never going to forget it. He sighed, coming down from his frenzied high. But he didn't stop to think of the consequences.

Not really, per say.

 **Hokage's office, fifteen minutes post explosion.**

"This is the most reckless thing you have ever done, Naruto."

Hiruzen didn't know what to feel. Angry that Naruto destroyed a whole training ground, sad that Naruto had lied about what he had learnt, happy that Naruto was now really strong enough to take care of himself or pissed that this situation was going to cause a shitload of paperwork.

The old man put on the face required by his office that screamed 'Naruto, you've really stepped in it this time.' But the boy had no regret. It was an awesome and a destructive technique when clones were used in bulk. Even if he had to replant and grow every tree that was blown up into splinters, he would do it happily.

Naruto was seated in front of the hokage while Kurenai and the rest of team 8 stood behind him. And behind **them** were Shibi Aburame and Hiashi Hyuuga. No doubt they felt off about the fact that Naruto nearly blew their children to bits.

The aged Sarutobi sighed. "Naruto, did you even stop to think of the complications and consequences?"

Naruto was impassive. "Hokage-sama, I did stop to think about them before I did the jutsu. If I had used offensive elemental bunshins like raiton or katon clones, the damage would have been significantly greater and possibly start a forest fire that would spread to other training grounds."

'Elemental bunshins used in a Daibakuha?' "That may be Naruto, but the fact remains why you did it at all."

Naruto was prepared for that one. "Kurenai-sensei told us to go for a kill. So I did."

"The laws state that if one leaf ninja kills another leaf ninja by any means other than self defense, the killer's life is forfeit."

"It's not as if it's murder. She told us to do it. Even if I, a mere _genin_ had killed my _jounin-sensei_ who practically told us to try and kill her had succeeded in doing so, one, it wouldn't have been murder, and two, it would have meant that jounin quality has been drastically reduced."

Kurenai nodded. That was true.

"Then what of Hinata, you wretch? Was her life forfeit in your attempts to kill your sensei?" Hiashi spat. "Did you not care if anything were to befall her?"

Shibi spoke up for the first time. "That's not entirely true, Hiashi-san." He pushed his shades a bit farther up his nose while speaking. "My son told me that Naruto warned him that his next technique would be quite potent and told him to leave with Hinata-san. In fact, he went on to explain that he got out of the blast radius with a bit more than enough time to spare."

"Are you defending the boy's inappropriate use of destructive techniques, Shibi-san?" Hiashi glared.

"No. but with all things considered, Naruto-san did nothing wrong. They were on a training ground doing a training exercise. The teacher's words, in a sense stated that they should give his best. Naruto told everyone of his potentially destructive jutsu, even going as far as to warn them before hand. No one perished, or even injured. The only expense was the training ground which…" Shibi trailed off.

"…Has no owners." Naruto finished.

Sarutobi sighed. They were correct on all points. The training ground was free for everyone to use. If you got injured there, it was basically your own fault. If no one owned the land, no one could be sued for injuries sustained there. Furthermore, since no one owned the land, Naruto didn't have to pay for any damages. In short, Naruto blows a training ground to hell and he gets to walk away whistling, scot free. He needed to find some way to amend that loophole.

"These are all true statements. Naruto has nothing binding him to any problems." Hiruzen stated. He looked at everyone's reaction. Shibi, Shino and Naruto were emotionless, Hiashi was giving a death stare at the blond, Hinata was uneasy, and Kurenai seemed… a bit upset.

'Probably because Naruto didn't get into trouble. She still needs to pull her act together and look past his prisoner's sins.' The Sandaime thought. "Shibi-san, Hiashi-san, you're free to leave."

The clan heads left, leaving Team 8 with the Hokage.

"Kurenai, would you recount what had transpired?" Hiruzen asked. The red eyed woman obliged and told him of all what had happened. The only details she spared were her feelings for the boy at the time. Naruto suspected her anyway and besides, she was sure the Hokage knew them already.

"…When I realized the jutsu, I performed a quick shunshin, not heeding where I would end up. However, I arrived at training ground seven, interrupting team seven's meeting and introductions. That's the conclusion, Hokage-sama."

The hokage seemed to be in deep thought. "So what is your assessment of their skills?"

The genin looked to their teacher, two of them hoping they made a good impression. The third one in particular didn't care.

"Shino shows promise in his clan's techniques, maintaining a somewhat pacifist behavior in fighting. He uses his clan's insects in an effort to weaken and incapacitate me, before hand. Hinata also shows some skill in using the gentle fist. However, she lacks confidence to fully follow through with her more debilitating jabs. I think that could be remedied over time. Naruto… demonstrates fairly good tactics, diversity in fighting and is overall a heavy hitter. In force alone, Naruto could be jounin level, while his tactics are chunin level. Unfortunately, he lacks experience on a real battlefield so he may appear excellent on paper." Kurenai said.

Naruto sighed. Even when he knew he was strong, she was using not-so-subtle insinuations to tear him down.

"I knew that if Kiba had been on this team we would have been a tracker team but I believe we are well rounded this way. I am a genjutsu expert, Shino has tracking abilities, Hinata is versed in taijutsu and can use her byakugan for sensoring and Naruto will be a Ninjutsu brawler. We would be able to be effective in combat at all ranges and situations."

Naruto opened his eyes a little wider. 'So. She is somewhat happy to be on this team, even with me. Perhaps I could try to make this work after all.'

The hokage made a note of what she said. "Interesting. It seems that your theory has merit. Very well. So I take it that you will pass this team?"

"Hai, hokage-sama."

"You may leave, Team 8."

Kurenai turned to her team. "We shall meet for training at seven a.m. at training ground four-"

"It's destroyed. Remember?" Naruto smirked.

Kurenai sighed. "We'll meet at training ground three instead."

The team collected themselves and ushered their way through the door, Naruto last. As he was about to step through, the hokage called out.

"Naruto, I wish to speak to you tomorrow at four p.m."

"Hai, hokage-sama," Naruto remained formal. He left, and shut the door behind him.

'He's still so noncasual with me. Is it because he found out about the Kyuubi in a more disastrous fashion than hearing it from me?' The hokage could only ruminate on his radical theories.

The door pushed open to reveal his secretary with a stack of papers which she placed on his desk. "Most of that consists of complaints regarding the explosion at training ground 4, hokage-sama, not to mention shinobi question"

Hiruzen sighed. It had been a bare half hour since the explosion and there was this much paperwork regarding it? He really, really needed to throw his hat to some other poor sap.

 **With Naruto**

He walked around aimlessly around the commercial area of Konoha. He could see the young people fraternizing, businesses thriving, overall, everyone was happy.

He sighed. It really wasn't fair. Why did everyone else get to be happy when he didn't?

" **These are unsafe waters, boy."**

'What?'

" **Why would you think of their happiness? It would only cause the opposite to you. Why would you even want happiness? Do you want to be happy?"**

Naruto stopped. Did he want to be happy? He wanted to answer 'yes' but the fox never asked him a question like that unless it was to make him think.

Naruto hazarded his answer. 'Hai.'

" **Why? And don't give me that life-isn't-fair crap."**

'Kuso. I lived on my own, Kurama. I've had the shit beaten out of me as a child. I went hungry without food, got sick eating spoilt food, wear rags for clothes. I think I deserve some happiness.'

Kurama nodded. **"Happiness is also a foolish emotion. It clouds judgment, creates insecurities about future problems, causes complacency and the list goes on. Frankly, have you 'forgotten' being a happy idiot?"**

'No. But it's still not fair though. I'm not asking for endless happiness, just a little. I can't even call… the Sandaime 'jiji' anymore. While I knew about you, I didn't know about an 'S' ranked secret that I wasn't meant to know. Even if he had told me himself and that I couldn't blab it out to everyone, it wouldn't have been so bad.'

" **Oh fuck. Cry me a river. Why couldn't I have been sealed in someone more emotionally stable? It just had to be some poor sap bemoaning his hand in life."**

Naruto chuckled. 'Shut up. At least we're friends, Kurama. Not everyone can boast about having a biju for a friend, you know.'

Kurama grinned. **"Friends? I prefer 'acquaintances.' Not friends."**

Naruto sighed. The fox was probably kidding. He continued walking, ignoring all the glares and hushed whispers. He couldn't be hurt. Not anymore. If a ninja was attacked by civilians he could defend himself, just short of killing. If someone wanted to get physical, Naruto would be sure to break a few bones. He was soon stopped by his growling stomach. He needed to get some food **now** , and some food for home. His eyes soon fell on a dango shop.

'Dango?' He raised an eyebrow. 'I might as well diversify my general palate.' He made his way to it and entered. The shop was moderately full, indicating popularity and prosperity. Looking around for the counter, trying to pierce the gathering with his eyes, he soon found it and made his way to it. He ordered a dozen skewers of the treat they specialized in. He was about to leave with his bag of the food when he heard his name called.

"Naruto! A minute of your time."

He looked over and cursed under his breath. Why were _they,_ of all people,calling to him? He didn't want anything to do with them unless it was absolutely necessary. But he couldn't pretend that he didn't notice them. He had already seen them. 'Shit.'

" **Just see what they want. If it lasts longer than you wish it to be, just complain that they said a 'minute' and that you're busy. Simple."** The nine tailed fox urged.

Naruto sighed. 'May as well see what they want.'

The boy with the vulpine visage walked over to the three jounin who were speaking in hushed tones with each other, apparently Kurenai did not want to talk with him, but Asuma had insisted. The third person with the mask and gravity defying grey hair was merely looked at Naruto with interest.

Naruto pulled up the fourth empty chair and sat in it, scrutinizing the jounin.

"Konbanwa. Pray tell me the purpose of inviting me here."

Asuma nodded, Kurenai stared and Kakashi… took out his worn looking orange book labeled 'Icha-Icha Paradise.'

'Probably his way of being casual and indifferent.' Naruto thought. "Well?"

"I believe that we got off to a poor understanding of each other." Asuma began. "I apologize for refusing help when you needed it and I hope for it not re-occur.. I didn't mean to become… tempestuous."

Naruto nodded slowly. "I apologize as well. I should have reigned in my emotions better and not let my frustration get the best of me. I'm also sorry for insulting my superiors and insulting the village's ideals. But I'll never forget."

Asuma raised an eyebrow. "While I'm glad that it's now water under the bridge, what do you mean when you say you'll never forget?"

Naruto smirked. "Let's just say that I'm a savant. A really good one."

Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow. "I find that hard to believe, considering what I've heard pertaining to your abysmal grades at the academy." 'But I need to look underneath the underneath. Something feels oddly familiar…'

"Well. Let's see if my memory serves me well enough. You are Kakashi Hatake, dubbed as 'The Copy-Cat Ninja,' due to having a transplanted sharingan that was used to copy numerous jutsus. Son of Sakumo Hatake, 'Konoha's White Fang.' Genin teammates were Rin Nohara and Obito Uchiha who…" Naruto hesitated. " _Perished_ during the Third Great Shinobi War. The team's jounin sensei was Minato Namikaze, who later became the fourth Hokage. I believe I have the more important details but that was all I read and learnt from the Academy's books."

The three jounin were surprised. This was supposed to be the academy's dead last?

"Asuma Sarutobi also has an equally impressive history, becoming one of the Fire Daimyo's guardian shinobi twelve. Unfortunately all I could find on _sensei_ was that she was your genin teammate, along with Raido Namiashi. Sorry Kurenai-sensei, you're...um...a bit better known than the average shinobi. Maybe it's for the best. I'm sure you wouldn't want someone out for your head. Or thinking that you're easy pickings." He mumbled the last under his breath but she must have heard it or read his lips. The marring scowl on her facr was testament to this.

Asuma frowned. "Well, you're right on all the details…" Kurenai glared at Asuma, who quickly went on. "But why do you make it sound like you have it in for her, even going as far as to level a whole training ground in a training exercise?"

"I don't really just dislike her. I dislike you all equally," he grimned wryly at this. "It keeps me unbiased. Maybe you none at all since we apologized to each other and all." Naruto stated matter-of-factly.

"The question remains. Why?" Kakashi asked. He really didn't want his sensei's son to be at odds with him. Minato was probably the closest thing Kakashi could call a 'friend.'

"She was prejudiced against me for…" Naruto rubbed his stomach where the seal was. "You all did. So I decided to use exploding clones. If she had taught me the regular bunshin, the explosion wouldn't have happened. Hell, I learnt more in the Mizuki incident in a single night more than I have learnt my whole life in Konoha. So anytime sensei sees me use clones or do well in general, she won't be able to take credit for it. It will be a lasting reminder of what she did… or _didn't_ do. That goes for all of you, including you Kakashi."

"So you blew up a training ground because Kurenai doesn't seem to like you. That's petty." Asuma concluded.

"As were your feelings and bias towards me."

" **Boy. Tell the woman that I'm sorry for her father. Tell them I was merely seeking revenge against the village. Anything but the truth about the Uchiha's control twelve years ago."**

"…Naruto? You spaced out a little." Asuma said.

Naruto didn't want to even think about Kurama's sudden change of heart. Perhaps he felt guilty about causing Naruto's sensei to dislike him. It didn't matter. He'll just go with it and see what happens.

"Kurenai-sensei?"

"Hmm?"

"Sorry for trying to blow you up." Naruto said, almost in a deadpan manner.

Kakashi and the Sarutobi chuckled.

"And…" He leaned forward and beckoned the woman to come closer as well, which she did. "My tenant apologizes for your father. It was nothing personal. He merely wanted revenge on the village for using him like a tool in the past from the days of Hashirama and Madara."

Kurenai widened her eyes. 'What?!'

Naruto leaned back and stood. "Well, I have to go. Goodbye." He took up his bag of dango and left the establishment.

"Asuma, Kakashi."

"Hmm?" "Hmm?"

Kurenai looked towards the exit where she saw Naruto had left through before turning back to her fellow senseis.

"He just told me that the Kyuubi is sorry about my tou-san."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure that Naruto didn't just say that to get into your good graces? After all, he seems well informed. Perhaps he found out about your father through some research."

"Naruto doesn't seem to be the type to lie, much less needlessly." Asuma argued. "Besides, it's not as if he would try to make amends, just to be on familiar terms with Kurenai."

"It's something to think about. If what he said is true than the Kyuubi must be on regular speaking terms with Naruto. What if it's trying to trick him, or worse, what if the seal is failing?" Kakashi asked. "This is troubling. We have to inform the hokage."

"Well, in any case, whether Naruto is telling the truth or not or if the fox is sincere or not, I consider the thought. I'll tell the Hokage myself." Kurenai got up, waved to her friends and left in a body flicker.

 **With Naruto**

Naruto sat on the park bench and took his vitamin supplements. He needed to bring his body back up to speed, now that he was a ninja. (Man shall not live by Ramen alone:D) He began to eat his dango and found that he enjoyed it, albeit a little too sweet. "I'll burn it off in training though. I guess that those dango people firmly believe in the maxim 'It's not delicious if it doesn't have more than enough grease or sugar.' Do you think they'll tell the hokage about the apology, Kurama?'

" **Hai. It's also a good way to tell the Hokage that he could have been more informative. Then again, you can't really hold it against him though. After all, would you tell an S ranked secret to your former idiotic persona?"**

Naruto stopped chewing. 'No.'

The great fox sighed. **"Well, try to contact the clones, check in on their progress."**

'Naruto considered the idea. 'Alright.' He tried to focus on his clones. He didn't have names to them. He could only identify them by their duty. 'Hello? Hospital clone? What's going on?'

'What? Oh. Thought I was being haunted or something. Listen. I need you over here within the hour.'

'Why?'

'I learned two medical jutsu over here and I've had to practice it in front of a nurse. I'm gonna run out of chakra soon. Or can't you send another clone over here or something?'

Naruto realized the dilemma. 'Alright. Tell them that you're going for some fresh air in exactly half hour. What does your henge look like?'

The clone imagined his description. 'You see it?'

'Yeah.' Naruto chewed on another skewer of the dango. 'You'll see another clone then. You can dispel then, let him learn the jutsu and everyone is happy.'

'Great. What short existences we clones live. By the way, you better eat your dinner and go to bed early. I've seen people after surgery. Don't want you to hurl or lose your appetite.'

Naruto did a double take. ' I'll keep that in mind. Now, what about library clones?'

'Yeah?'

Kurama interjected. **"This is still messed up. You're talking to yourself."**

'Shut up Kurama!' everyone yelled in thought. 'It's not funny!'

'Anyway, what were you saying clone number one?'

'Hey! Wait a minute!' the other library clone hollered in mind-speak. 'Why the hell am I number two?'

'Stay out of this. I don't need the headache.'

'Whatever.'

'What were you saying?'

'We're making good headway. I read forty books since Saturday and my fellow clone here read around thirty six.'

'Some of them were really thick books! I actually read more than you!'

Naruto sighed. 'Continue number one.'

'The librarian let us stay reading at night though. He mentioned that someone else did what ere doing now. The Yondaime.'

Naruto raised an eyebrow. 'He did what we're doing now?'

'Hai. We'll last for another week though. Gonna need some more chakra by Saturday.'

'That's fine. I'll swing by then.'

'Ok.'

Naruto tried mentally reaching for the last clone, but couldn't. 'Guess it doesn't apply to that one.'

Naruto shook his head. Life was certainly interesting; never a dull moment.

 **With Tenten, Tuesday, five p.m.**

The bun haired girl sighed as she stepped inside her home. (Orphanage.) "Masato! I'm home! The children's home was empty. She bounded up the stairs to her room and put down her things. "Masato!" she called again.

"Tenten-chan?" the voice sounded faint. "We're in the backyard."

She ran downstairs and out the backdoor. Sure enough, she saw everyone there. All the children were eating what appeared to be takeout ramen and Masato was speaking the Hokage. Asami approached her with another takeout bowl and gave it to her.

"Here Tenten-neechan. Someone sent all of us ramen. Here's yours."

"Ramen?"

"Hai. We all found these drawings under the container. Look."

He lifted his now-empty bowl and showed her the bottom. There was a piece of paper taped to it of picture of some sort. She felt under her own bowl and found another similar to his. She placed the picture in her pocket, intending to look it over later.

"So, how did it go?"

"What?"

"The mission."

"It was ok. You know, same old, same old."

"Huh. You say that all the time. Come on. Nothing?"

Tenten fell defeated to the badgering. "Fine. We went up against some bandits and I killed the worst one. This guy was really hardcore and he liked to decapitate people."

Her surrogate brother tasted a bit of bile that rose to the back of his throat. "That's awful. I'm sorry I asked."

"He almost killed me. Twice. But," she smiled. "I guess I'm just awesome." Asami elbowed her in her ribs.

"Glad you're home safe, sis. I guess I'm really not cut out to be a ninja. Stomach's too weak. But I got a great sister who is one."

"Arigatou, asami-nii."

She looked down at the noodles in the broth. "Wonder who sent it?"

"Who knows?"

"Masato!"

The orphanage owner had somehow crept up behind her and surprised her. That was… somewhat impressive. For a civilian.

The brown eyed girl looked around but couldn't see the Sandaime. "Where's the hokage?"

Masato stroked his chin. "He left while you were talking with Asami."

"What did he want?" Asami queried.

"Oh, he was just talking business. Apparently, he's going to fund for some repairs around the orphanage. About time anyway."

"That's great news! But was he the one who sent the ramen? It tastes great, but I don't think the Sandaime can cook?" The boy joked.

They chuckled. "True. While I know who sent it, I'm not going to tell you. But if you really want to know, look at the picture carefully and try to think who you've seen with a face like that." The orphanage owner said conspirationally.

Tenten who had started eating nodded. "Might as well. Ramen's good though. Who made it?"

"It was made by Ichiraku's. Apparently, our _mystery person_ sponsored ramen for all of you. While it's cheap, you should appreciate the gesture."

"Really? Why is that?" Asami raised an eyebrow.

"Because…" a storm cloud spawned over Masato. "I didn't get any."

The children laughed. "I guess so…tou-san." Tenten said.

Masato perked up. "Tou-san?"

Tenten nodded. "Yeah."

Masato looked at the brown haired girl. "Moved on?"

"Moved on."

 **Well. I guess that's it for this chapter. Sorry for it being boring and short and all that. It felt like pure filler to me and besides, I was gonna start an entirely new topic next chapter, training and a new arc and such. I read a fic recently and I had to make a quote from it. It's called "The Price of Peace" by 'Boranbolt'. The quote is from chapter 10. It reads:**

"… **A smarter Naruto did** _ **not**_ **seem pleasant. A smarter Naruto might ruminate too much on the village's past treatment of him. A smarter Naruto would be** _ **dangerous.**_ **" End quote.**

 **Somehow, it feels appropriate for this fic. Not dark, not evil, just… dangerous.**

 **Also, I just want to put it out there. If the story has 88 followers, why am I only receiving an average two reviews a chapter? Come on folks! Your keyboards are being neglected! Don't think that other people will review for you. Cause I think that all of you are thinking the same thing. Anyway, that's all. Gotta school some punks in Call of Duty with a sniper rifle. (Revised: And an automatic shotgun. Damn!)**

 **Sayonara.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Damn. I swear the hardest part to every chapter is starting it. You know how it is. 'A job is half done once it's begun.' Truer words have never been spoken.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

 **This disclaimer crap is starting to feel like it's stuck in a loop feature.**

 **14.**

 **Wednesday, One week later**

The sun finally broke over the horizon in an effort to rouse all creatures that were yet to awaken. It cast its glow over the training ground, causing the trees to cast long shadows. However, in one such shadow a blond reclined, eating an apple. He appeared to be deep in thought, a fact that was growing more often in occurrence nowadays. He was in fact speaking to his tenant, a chakra monster sealed inside of him.

'That's true. But I was going to leave that jutsu to a katon clone when I got to it. What's next?'

" **What about those 'gravity seals'?"**

'Ok. I remember reading that the seal was labeled a kinjutsu, due to being a double edged sword. It brings gifts in one hand, and stabs you in the back with the other hand.'

" **How come? It can't be much different than the regular weight?'** Kurama asked.

'Simple.' The boy thought his reply. 'Gravity seals, as mentioned by their name affect the force of gravity on you. Not necessarily make you heavy by 'forcing' you to the ground. It's like it makes you into a core of sorts. Remember when I visited Nami no kuni?'

" **Wave? Hai. You nearly drowned and that man saved you. What was his name?"**

'Kaiza?'

" **Yes. But we digress. Get to the point."**

'The seals are supposed to work like that. Like the sea, in a sense. For a human being, gravity is increased on your person only when using the seal. Imagine a stone at the bottom of the sea. The water pressure would be constantly pressing down on it, keeping it down, as well as around it. For a human being, while everyone is moving normally, it will be like you're moving through syrup. This exercise forces you to put more effort into something as trivial as walking. Your whole body extremely heavy; your muscle density would increase with your exertions as well as your speed. It's like being chained to a boulder until you're able to run with it.' Naruto smirked.

" **And when you're unshackled, you're running speed with the burden plus your natural speed equals…"** Kurama grinned.

'Speed demon.'

" **This is all well and good, but how is this supposed to backfire? How is this supposed to be harmful when it seems like an excellent way to train?"** The Kyuubi was locked in thought. **"It would have been a great improvement for that so-called ninja academy. All they're really doing is teaching civilians how to throw kunai and shuriken."**

'It is a kinjutsu for a reason. Why can't a fish live on dry land, or a man in the sea?'

" **Enlighten me."**

'They would be out of their element. Essentially, it all boils down to gravity seal's curse. Once you release the seal's effects and 'return to normal', your muscles and your break down from overexertion when you move faster than what you're used to. But for us, I think we're an exception.'

Kurama tried to think about what the blond meant. Why were they exceptions to such a rule? It's not as if his chakra could be used as a buffer in a case like this.

" **Elaborate."**

'Think. The only exception is due to the fact of people with medical potential healing such injuries. Or deal with it over time, tearing muscles and damaging bones and repairing them to be more dense and such for future uses.'

" **I see."** The fox now realized what his container was driving at. **"My chakra will be constantly healing and regenerating torn muscles, fractured bones, damaged tissue and ligaments."**

'That's it.' Naruto stood and stretched. 'That's going to have to wait though. I have to get my hands on some sealing ink and other such supplies. I think it would be somewhat beneficial for me to study seals. I am yet to somehow contribute to the team I intend to create.'

" **True. What's next?"**

'I got every technique from the scroll memorized. I know their instructions, strengths and weaknesses. I might not know how to do them, but, I'll be able to recognize them should I see them in the future and counteract them. For now, I want to work on the katon technique I saw in it as well as the wind one. I could leave that to the future clones I'll create that will have their abilities lean towards those affinities.' Naruto started to run towards the village border to start doing his laps. 'The Tenacious Thirteen, huh? I wouldn't have to resort to that if my teacher still thinks I'm some kind of a time bomb.' He sighed. The Yuhi woman had responded to the apology in an unforeseen manner. She had scrutinized everything he did for a week, and he had a feeling it was just the beginning. The old man must have put her up to it, or more than likely, she didn't believe in the apology. Figures. He says sorry for his tenant and suddenly, he's high risk. The woman even tried to train him separate from Hinata and Shino, making some half baked lie that they needed the most work.

As if.

She could have made it a bit more believable. If she had split them all up and used clones it would have been more sincere-sounding.

In a short hour later he had finished all his laps, (barely winded) and went back home to have his breakfast. As he ate, he looked around his dilapidated apartment he called home and frowned. A sudden movement caught his eye. He noticed a rat darting from his pantry with a bit of food in its mouth towards another hole. When the rat disappeared inside, he heard more squeaking. 'Probably raising a family in there,' he sighed in a resigned manner.

"Guess they made my home little more than a prison. Maybe I really should join the orphanage after all. But the minute I leave there in the morning, I would probably come back to see it burned to the ground." He bemoaned aloud.

" **Oh Kami, not again. Just shut-"** Kurama started.

"I'm fine, I'm fine; really," Naruto protested weakly. "I was only joking."

" **I can tell you're in denial. I can read your thoughts, you know."**

"Oh no, get out of my head!" Naruto jested. "Someone help! I've got voices in my head!" The boy laughed.

The fox groaned. Why was he placed in such a sick bastard for a jail? Although the jail was now a whole lot more comfortable now. That was a deed neither Mito nor Kushina had ever fulfilled for him.

 **Four hours later**

"And that's the fifth D rank mission for team 8. A decent start but team 7 has already done nine,' Iruka remarked in a mild boast. 'You want to lose to Kiba and Sasuke, Naruto?"

Iruka and the Hokage sat next to each other. It seems that Iruka had finished his obligations to this generation's class and the academy would start back up in the fall. However, it seems he applied for a temporary position as the hokage's assistant in helping with handing out missions as well as general paperwork. It seems that the aged hokage welcomed Iruka for the company as well as the respite from his document worries.

" **You have to make it sound as if you care. Act… stupid!"**

'Damn.' "What? Kurenai-sensei, we gotta do some more! Iruka-sensei, can we do two or three at a time?" Naruto tried to use puppy eyes, but it didn't pull off none too well, seeing as he was too (far) old. Essentially, he was acting… like traditional Naruto.

"No Naruto." Iruka deadpanned. "Only one at a time."

'Do you think we're making them think they're overreacting about suspicion?' The whiskered boy thought.

" **No. we're only fooling Hinata and Iruka for sure. Shino is a maybe. Kurenai and the Sandaime… not a chance."**

'In other words, I lose face and dignity and it didn't even matter.'

" **Well, we'll just have to deal with it and be more careful what we do or say in the future."** The fox replied.

The hokage spoke up. "Genin can perform d-ranks in their own time though. You don't have to necessarily do them with your team. Some genin do this as a means to earn a little extra cash sometimes." He had fully expected Naruto to grimace but Naruto had instead adopted a thoughtful expression.

'I wonder. I'm guessing that I might be able to take the D ranks anytime then, going by what he said. Perhaps…'

"May I have three D ranks when I come by later?"

"What?"

"I mean what I said, Iruka-sensei. Anyway, can we just go catch Tora the cat now? I'm sure that's what you had in mind anyway. Still, I wonder what they were thinking when they named a cat 'Tiger'."

 **Training ground three, post mission**

"So we will be trying to improve the team's synergy. Today, we'll be doing a bastardized version of the original genin test. You will be trying to remove these bells," Kurenai pointed to the bells strapped to her waist. "By using teamwork. You have been kept separated from each other to help team cohesiveness on the fly." She concluded.

'What a load of bull-shit. She's just saying that so my other teammates don't get suspicious to what she's been doing.' Naruto snorted.

Kurenai glared at the boy. "And the bunshin daibakuha has to be limited to a smaller scale to reduce collateral damage as well as improve safety odds for other team members."

It was pretty obvious what she was talking about.

"Hajime!" The woman shouted.

Naruto immediately spawned two clones and they dashed at the sides, trying to flank the jounin while Shino charged at the woman, insects starting to pour out of his sleeves. As expected, Hinata stayed behind, hesitating a little before activating her dojutsu and running at her sensei as well.

Kurenai backpedaled a little, trying to keep the blond and his doppelgangers within her field of vision while Shino reached her and started to fight her with taijutsu, insects coming out of his clothes the whole time in an effort to swarm the woman. This was quite a change from his somewhat pacifist nature in fighting, which rather consisted of letting his parasitic insects gorge themselves on all the chakra from his opponents.

However, Naruto and his clones past her when Shino occupied her. The spectacled boy threw a punch towards the woman's solar plexus which she caught in her left hand. The boy tried to corkscrew his hand out of the woman's grip, but she held fast and kicked away his legs before releasing him.

'What's the plan boss?' A clone thought to his creator.

'We're going to wing it. I'll approach her back while the rest of you flank her. We'll try to fight her in her blind spot.'

They contributed by throwing weapons at the jounin, hoping that they would stall her until Shino and Hinata occupied the jounin more successfully. Not as distractions. He himself wanted to see what they were capable of.

Shino's insects settled on the woman. She momentarily stopped before she exploded into smoke, revealing that she was a shadow clone.

Naruto grinned. 'Looks like someone took a page from my book.'

Hinata looked around with her byakugan. "S-she's in the forest to o-o-our r-right!" she exclaimed.

Naruto quickly created eight more clones and the clones leapt into the forest indicated while Shino recalled his insects and jumped into he opposite forest, no doubt to strategize. Hinata was left in the clearing alone with the original Naruto.

"Hinata, I need you to come with me."

"W-what?" the lavender eyed girl blushed a little.

"I need you to be my eyes. She uses genjutsu, right? The byakugan should be able to see through that." Naruto amended his implication.

"O-oh." The girl pointed at a particular tree but she was suddenly assaulted from all sides by shuriken and kunai, transforming the girl into a corpse riddled by weapons in no time flat.

"What the hell...?"

The boy stared at the dead girl. Something is wrong. For one, this was a training exercise. Second, this girl was supposed to be the daughter of the jounin's friend. 'Shit. Genjutsu…'

He formed the ram seal, compressed his chakra and then released. "Kai!"

His surroundings shimmered like heat waves in a distance before changing to that of an empty training ground. 'Fine. I'll work with this. No kage bunshin daibakuha. Just non-exploding clones.'

"Iwa bunshin no jutsu!"

The boy formed a dozen rock clones gave them a mental cue, before they used **Doton: Chika hira no jutsu** (Earth release : Underground projection technique). He then created a single katon clone before he leapt into the tree line.

" **Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu!** "

"What?!" Naruto turned around to see a large fireball coming at him. Given the close range, he couldn't jump out of the way or use a kawarimi. He braced himself while covering his face with his hands. "Shit!"

The fireball disappeared.

"W-wha…?" Was his first intelligent response coming back to reality. He looked around to see Hinata with her hand on his shoulder back in the middle of the clearing.

Naruto's heartbeat slowed down, coming down from his panic attack. "What happened?" He was still unsure of what had really come to pass.

"Y-y-you were under a g-genjutsu," Hinata said, starting to blush for touching her crush. It was a bit pathetic for her to get so flustered around him, but it was also endearing.

'Oh,' He realized. "Kuso! It was a double genjutsu! Hey Kurenai- sensei, you know that most chunin and some jounin still fall for a trick like that! I'm still a genin you know!" he shouted, looking around trying to get a response.

He received none.

He turned back to the girl. "Hey Hinata, when did I start to act strange?"

"I-I think it was w-w-when you started to t-talk to me after your clones l-left." She stated. She felt a bit disappointed for not noticing and helping him out of the genjutsu sooner. She could only imagine what he had seen when he was trapped in it.

Kurenai watched the boy's clones search for her. She hid among the foliage and saw them dart from tree to tree in an effort to find her. She needn't worry for them. She presently had a camouflage genjutsu over herself to blend in with the tree so even if they knew of her presence they wouldn't find her. She had a little time to study the boy in the clearing with Hinata. She gritted her teeth. Why did the girl have to fall for _him_? Of all the boys to fall for, she fell for the pariah of Konoha, a jinchuriki and a clan-less orphan to boot. Not exactly ideal for the girl who practically had a princess status in the village. And the apology the week before. It felt… off. She felt that the apology was half sincere but she didn't know where the lie was. The lie could be that Naruto was untruthful about the fox apologizing so he could get into her good graces, or that the fox didn't mean it, or…

And the list went on. Because he wasn't entirely truthful, she had yet to trust him. But what if he were completely truthful? Would she have accepted the apology? A massive demon fox that razed the village that supposedly loved carnage and destruction apologized for a 'random' ninja he killed. So she couldn't really blame him. He probably felt he could only trust himself, given how he was treated and about the S ranked secret he found out about. But he was right in the sense of the genjutsu. A double layered one was a bit steep, even if it were a duplex of the C ranked **Magen: Makai kanran no jutsu** (Demonic illusion: Hell viewing technique). He was just a genin. A promising, aspiring, _dangerous_ __genin who blew training ground to hell. But she wondered regardless.

"Kurenai-sensei!"

She broke out of her musings and saw that the boy was shouting something.

"I know where Shino and Hinata are. She also says you're over there…" the boy waved at the general tree line where she was.

"So I'm limiting the daibakuha. Instead of four thousand clones… you're getting two hundred. Aren't you lucky?!" he shouted. He made a cross hand seal and created the specified two hundred clones that leapt into the canopy where she was suspected to be. "I'm counting to ten for you to get out of there into the open where I can see you!"

Yuhi snorted; the nerve of this kid. He wasn't breaking rules. He cut down his percentage by ninety five percent. While a drastic reduction, it was _still_ overkill. He could be bluffing though.

"Ichi…ni…san…yon…go…roku…nana…haichi,"

All the clones made the ram seal.

"…kyuu…"

All the clones started to glow and at that point, she no longer doubted the boy any more. She quickly deactivated her camo genjutsu and jumped into the clearing.

"…Ju!" The boy didn't react in time and still gave the order.

The clones exploded.

Fwoooshh!

'What?' Kurenai looked back to where the clones were, baffled to see not an explosion, but a gale of wind to blow out of the tree line. 'A false explosion. He bluffed, somewhere along the lines.'

The blonde spoke, as if he read her mind. "I half bluffed. I only used futon bunshins. Those are a bit harmless when used in a daibakuha. They exploded, no one got hurt, and you came out of hiding. Everyone wins. Well, except you. You're revealed and you've been had. String her up!"

'String me up?'

She instantly felt ninja wire wrap itself around her, locking her limbs together. Hands then grabbed her feet from underground and pulled her down to her waist. 'Not again,' she thought exasperated.

"Go Hinata!" Naruto yelled to his teammate.

The blue haired girl ran forward at the bound jounin, byakugan flaring. She quickly closed the distance and started to seal the woman's tenketsu. However, after the third jab, the woman exploded into smoke, revealing that she was a shadow clone.

"Kuso! I was the one tricked. I thought that would get her." Naruto cursed. "Hinata, do you see her?"

The girl gazed around. "N-no. Wait… I see t-three of h-her!"

"Three?" the Uzumaki repeated. 'She must really be getting into the usage of clones like me.'"Hey Kurenai-sensei! Trying to take a page out of my book of tricks? I'm the only person in Konoha capable of a one-man army you know!"

The only reply was Shino to come leaping out of his tree line, disheveled. It looked as if he was fighting one of the Kurenai's clones but had to flee. The Aburame got up and cradled his shoulder and elbow. It was obviously hurt but he suffered it in silence as he made his way to his other teammates. Naruto observed him and created a kage bunshin who was given a telepathic order. The clone flashed through the handseals for horse, bird and dog before it's hand lit up in an ethereal green which he laid on Shino's arm. After a minute of his ministrations, the clone stopped and dispersed itself. Shino stretched his arm and made a fist. There was no pain.

"I was not aware that you knew medical Ninjutsu Naruto-san. But I am grateful. Arigatou." Shino thanked the whiskered boy.

"Douitashimashite."

"N-naruto-kun, w-w-why didn't you d-do it yourself? Why c-create a clone?" Hinata was confused as to the blond's actions.

"The clone I just created specifically for that jutsu significantly smaller reserves than I do. Because of this, they have the necessary chakra control to perform the jutsu. Simply to the fact that I am unable to." Naruto answered. "Perhaps I could teach you the **Shosen no jutsu** , Hinata. You could probably learn it."

"H-hai. That would be most welcome."

"So…teamwork…what do we do?"

Shino was about to answer when Kurenai appeared among them, palm thrusting Hinata in her chest away from her to the ground, punched Shino in the gut and smashed her fist into Naruto's jaw, dropping all three of them in a blinding move within the space of a single second.

"No planning! Everything has to be on the spur of the moment!" She walked away from the genin a dozen yards away. "Let's see if you can get the bells," she urged. She tapped the bells to make them ring.

Naruto glared at the woman and rubbed his pained jaw. It was already healing, but why the hell did she have to hit him in the face? His forehead started to burn and whole body started to burn. He gritted his teeth against the pain. So much so, when the other saw him, it was as if he had started to steam. She activated her dojutsu and saw his chakra fluctuating all over his body, particularly in the network in his head.

"N-naruto-kun, are you alright?"

The boy grunted his unintelligible answer before he ran to the trees to hide. He ran, limping the whole way, trying to keep his wits around him. His body soon started stopped burning although the discomfort remained. 'Kurama, what's happening?'

" **I'm not sure. It must be another latent ability. I can sense more activity than what is usual in your nervous system, especially in your limbs. Check your forehead."** The fox suggested.

Naruto shakily undid the knot keeping his forehead protector tied to his head. He turned it over with unsteady hands and looked at his forehead's reflection. He saw an arrow passing through the 1st and 2nd circle, pointing to the south.

The kanji was 'reflex'.

"Reflex, huh?" he didn't know what it meant, but he had some ideas. He created a clone and telepathically told it to replace him. He had imbued it with a quarter of his reserves in the hopes that it would not dispel in a few hits. The clone retreated back to the team while Naruto slumped at the base of a tree, determined to wait out his ordeal.

"Reflex." He repeated. What next?

He waited fifteen minutes for the pain to finally pass before he got back up. His sore limbs reacted in pain when he stood. He groaned for the momentary discomfort to pass before he stretched. His joints popped with action.

'How am I, Kurama?'

" **You're fine. Everything seems fine from my perspective. But there has been a rather big change, don't know if it's a good thing or bad thing."**

'What is it?'

" **It seems that your nerves are on a hair trigger. It's like they're now custom-made to carry more information faster to your brain. Also, chakra seems a bit altered. Don't know why. Just is. Nothing malicious but nothing good either."**

"Arigato." Naruto said aloud.

It seems that his theory was correct. Perhaps he would have a faster reaction time to outside stimuli. Well, time to test it out.

Naruto jumped back up to the tree branches and started tree hopping back to the clearing. This should make things more interesting. If it really was to have a faster reaction time, was it like the sharingan?

The Kyuubi caught the thought. **"No. The sharingan increases time perception. So much so that you can see an attack coming and prepare to negate it. I suspect that this may be a bit different, seeing as how you don't have that dojutsu."**

'Sounds debatable. What's the idea then? If I just see or sense an attack coming my body itself responds faster?'

" **Quite likely. But we should keep in mind that we're thinking of a literal body reflexive reaction."** Kurama answered.

The boy finally arrived back again in the clearing to see everyone gone. He started to wonder where they were when some sort of 'six sense' started to move his body involuntarily to catch a fist thrown to his upper back. The boy looked at the hand he had in his palm and trailed along it with his eyes to see Kurenai's eyes hinting surprise, laced with disbelief that Naruto had detected and caught her punch. The boy's eyes widened as he realized what he had done. He hadn't even sensed her presence; not by intent nor by sight. It was as if he just stopped a tangible ghost that suddenly came into existence.

The woman got over her stupor first and kicked away Naruto's left leg at the shin with a thrusting kick. The boy started to stumble forward but he still held on to the woman's hand, trying to right himself. Yuhi sidestepped and savagely jerked the boy forward, releasing his grip. Naruto, seeing that he could no longer right himself properly finished falling, pushed off his legs at the last second and rolled, drawing a kunai midway through and threw it at the woman but missed.

She was no longer there.

The boy did a rapid 360 degree turn and looked around fervently in an effort to find the woman. His '6th' sense started to involuntarily move again, making the boy jump away from the spot where he was standing. A split second passed before he saw two hands thrust out of the ground.

Apparently, his sensei was now a fan of his more favored and frequented techniques.

The boy landed a dozen yard from where his sensei apparently was and leapt away again to a tree branch to collect his thoughts. The boy breathed deeply, coming down from his adrenaline rush from the encounter with his teacher.

'Shit! Why is she going so hard on me! And how did I know she was going to harm me those two times? It really must be 'reflex.' But how come it didn't intervene when she dragged me forward? There should have been a reaction to that. After all, I even saw her do it! Does it only apply to things I don't see coming?'

It was puzzling. The boy felt as if another being had momentarily taken control of his body those two times. He didn't really sense what was going to happen. He just reacted to the situation, as if his body went on automatic. Like he could feel vibrations in the earth. Like he could feel the wind move due to the locomotion of other things. Like he could hear the faint heartbeat. Like he could smell her. Not really any of these things. His brain intercepted all the little, minute and subtle changes in the atmosphere and intercepted the threat to the body, sending reflexive information to all the nerves that reacted quicker.

The boy grinned. This ability was going to be certainly useful.

 **The hokage's office, two hours later**

"And then he had somehow been able to negate most of my surprise attacks. Some of them were slow at first but when I started moving faster he couldn't keep up." Kurenai said. "The boy certainly has a lot of tricks up his sleeves. I admit that I went quite a bit harder against him but that was because he's fighting at a much higher level than others of his generation."

"Kurenai," the Hokage regarded his pipe and pointed it at her, almost as if he was giving a lecture (The professor. Ha ha.) "I am also aware of your prejudice against what he contains, as well of your segregation of him against the rest of your team. This goes against your training exercise of trying to promote your 'spur of the moment' teamwork. The team must be spend time together so they learn each other's strengths and weaknesses so they can work with each other well in the field. But he seems to be able to create decent tactics against you when he works with his teammates in tandem. I also noticed that Naruto had a brief period of discomfort and you noted that it was after he returned he improved. Above all, this is going to be a serious black mark on your record if you don't release your bias against the boy. You could even be forced to quit being a jounin sensei. He has done nothing wrong and even if 'he' apologized, whether it was the boy or the Kyuubi, at least there was some repentance. Am I clear?" The Hokage leveled his eyes in an imposing stare at the woman, relinquishing no favor.

"Hai, hokage-sama."

"In other matters, Naruto sent a clone while you were all training. The boy said that you were taking it a bit too easy on her. At first I thought that he meant himself in contrast to the Hyuuga, but he meant in comparison as her versus him and Shino. Care to explain?"

Kurenai stuttered a little. "I-I have no recollection…"

"Kurenai?" Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. "I'm aware that you are fond of the girl, but if you coddle her, how do you think she is going to fare off when she is out in the field? She will be unprepared, receiving mere scratches in the village and attaining serious wounds outside it. As to this, you are presently looking worse than Kakashi, for he treats all of his underlings equally, although Inuzuka Kiba has complained of very little training, if any. You're going to need to shape up. That will be all. You're dismissed."

With a bit of a forlorn look on her face, Kurenai bowed her head once and left the room via the door.

Hiruzen sighed deeply. "I wonder if I should have placed Naruto on team seven instead? Perhaps Kakashi would have loved to teach his sensei's son." He mused, but soon shook his head. "No. he'd be too lazy. And Asuma's in the same boat. Kuso. The only jounin doing their job right is probably Gai and his quirks are disturbing. What's wrong with my higher ups?" he groaned.

 **With Naruto, next day, afternoon.**

Naruto completed his finishing touches to the seal. "Ha ha! Done! What do you think Ky?"

" **Seems as if it was done correctly. Good work. How are you going to test it?"**

"Simple. One of me!" the boy quickly created a clone and slapped the gravity seal tag unto it's bare chest. The paper disintegrated and seal tattooed itself unto the clone. The boy recalled his notes he made on the seal's workings and slammed his palm unto the clone's chest, focused his chakra unto the seal and yelled.

"Ni!" (Two)

The clone suddenly stooped a little before struggling to stand again. It was obvious that the seal worked. But at least this way he had someone he could talk to the victim to get feedback.

"Well, how is it?"

"I feel like my body weight doubled, what do you think, genius?" the clone said sarcastically.

"Just try walking." Naruto tried to ignore his doppelganger's complaint. The clone obliged and tried to walk. He did so with some difficulty but got along fine.

"Feels like walking through molasses. But I'm fine. It just takes some getting use to. Can you take it off now?"

Naruto walked over to the clone and repeated his original procedure but yelled 'ichi'. The clone sighed in relief, and then decked Naruto in the jaw.

"Ow! What the hell?!"

"HA! Take that!" the clone then took a kunai out of its holster and stabbed itself in the eye, dispersing itself.

"What…the…"

"… **Fuck."** "…Fuck."

The Kyuubi regarded the bunshin as being playful but that method of disposing itself was unnerving to say the least. He could only wonder; perhaps that was only a minute portion of the possibility that his container had garnered slight instability due to the seal. **'Maybe we missed the deadline by a day or so. I didn't really count the years to the day, and I myself had no intention of making him put with the memories a day earlier than he had to.'**

"Kami! What the hell is going on with my clone? Was that just revenge for the seal?" Naruto was confounded. "Kuso!"

The boy set about drawing another gravity seal. Halfway through it, twelve more kage bunshins ran up to his location under the tree at training ground three. They reached him and saluted.

"They're done for the day, boss!" they spoke in perfect unison.

Naruto looked up. "Thank you very much. Just put the earnings in here." He picked up a small bag next to him inside a knothole in the tree and held it out. The clones filed into a straight line and dropped the money into the bag one at a time. After they were done, he peered inside and did a mental count.

'Lets see… 6…8…10… and… 50…80?' "1080 ryu?! Fan…TASTIC!" He jumped up. "You guys did great! You can get a bowl of ramen each!"

The clones cheered. They didn't expect to be rewarded. They just expected to be dispersed and all that.

"Hold on!" Naruto exclaimed, before his clones got carried away. "I need all of you to henge into different disguises and spread rumors about rats in a grocery store." His eyes gleamed. "The store is called 'The Ryu Saver', owned by Yoshiro Suhan." He handed each of them twenty ryu. "Then you can get ramen."

"Lets get it over with, fellas!" the clones shunshinned away.

"Heh heh. I bet you thought I forgot, didn't you Kurama?"

" **Me? I didn't even remember."**

 **AN - (This applies to all of you too readers!)**

Naruto leaned against the tree and slid back down into a comfortable slump. "Alright. Good day so far, minus the whole punch in the face and suicidal clone. Everything else went alright." He mumbled. "I finally understand the seal's mechanics, I'm…840 ryu richer and from Yoshiro's perspective, the prick will probably get his store closed down at the very worst, lose business at best. All in all, good day."

He started drawing the seal again. He carefully drew the symbols, infused chakra in all the right places and made sure that all the correct outer kanji were in perfect order and synced. He observed the finished product with an air of finality before standing again. He bared his chest, hesitated for a single second and then slammed it on his chest, focused his chakra into it and yelled.

"Ni!"

He instantly fell to one knee as he felt his weight double. "Shit!" He bellowed, although you couldn't tell due to his clenched teeth. He strained to stand upright again. He soon righted himself again and tried to walk. But it soon became clear that just lifting a leg and placing it before another was now a bit difficult. However, he soon became used to it and was soon walking normally.

"Hah! I got it! Ky, I can tell that this is going to make me stronger."

" **I can tell also. All the muscles in your legs are clearly using more effort just to walk. Don't you realize that you're a bit breathless?"**

Naruto stopped breathing for a minute. But he soon realized that his need for air was much quicker and urgent than what he was used to. 'You're right. Maybe I should practice with it for the rest of the time here.'

The boy continued to practice wearing the seal for the rest of the day, walking, then jogging, then running, sprinting. Before long, he was reduced to crawling on his hands and knees back to his original tree. He gathered his things back together and reduced the seal to one and then made his way home, collapsing on his bed and falling asleep as soon as he laid his head on his pillow.

For the next month, this was how his timetable went, if for lack of details. He would wake up, have breakfast, train with his team, do a couple d ranks with them, eat lunch, replace hospital clone, replenish library clones, send back a dozen clones to Iruka to do more d ranks while he trained with the seal, limp home and drop into his bed.

Throughout the first week, he realized that he needed to have more diverse meals, seeing as how he now missed his third one everyday. He found that with his newfound earnings, he could afford to just eat breakfast at a café everyday and have ramen for lunch with his regular supplements. He made sure to have food from all the food groups and with his supplements, he soon became much healthier and with his now vigorous and training, he lost all traces of baby fat on his face and muscles soon developed in places he barely existed before; one such case were calves. They grew as lean and sinewy muscle without bulk weight and were as hard as mahogany. Soon, he could manage with the seal easily on twice the gravity. He soon rose to the third tier in the second week, still keeping up the habit of exhausting himself daily. He stopped removing the seal in the third week and kept it on. In the fourth week, he started doing chakra control exercise on water with the seal on. Needless to say, he kept falling in for two days. He soon conquered this; the now difficult exercise helped to increase his chakra control to help keep up with his growing chakra reserves. He started running gauntlets of obstacles in the destroyed training ground four with clones throwing jutsu left and right in an effort to stop him. There was no holds barred on these exercises and the boy trained his new found reflexes to hone his ever growing skills. He knew that he was growing stronger everyday.

It was wonderful.

He grew stronger, he ate better, grew richer.

And all it took was a couple of kinjutsu. Who would've thought it?

 **Outside the hokage's office, one month post Gravity Seal's first use.**

"Alright. You may go in, Shino, Hinata, Naruto." Kurenai ordered.

They all opened the door and stepped inside. The hokage and Iruka was there, seated as usual behind and to the side of the desk.

"Good Morning Hokage-sama." Team eight chorused.

"Kon-nichi wa, Kurenai, Naruto, Hinata, Shino. Back for another D rank?"

"Hai, hokage-sama. We would like one please." Yuhi answered.

"Iruka, if you may?" Hiruzen looked to Iruka who had already started to leaf through all the mission documents. In fact, he searched through it twice but couldn't seem to find any.

"Iruka-san?" Kurenai raised an eyebrow.

"I-I c-cant seem to find any!" the chunin stuttered in bewilderment.

"Have you checked the back clog of D ranks?" The Sandaime asked with a grimace. Those missions were the worst. Low paying, tedious, menial, humiliating… all the things people usually steered clear of. They would dole the missions as D ranked to the unsuspecting genin. So much so that they were saved for last, or if a genin was desperate for cash. Or for punishment. That went both ways; if someone needed to be disciplined by way of law, or if the person was a complete wack-job and **wanted** to do it to themselves...enough said.

"None Hokage-sama. Wait a minute." Iruka suddenly recalled giving the last D rank to one of Naruto's clones. "I now remember. I gave out the very last one to Naruto yesterday. And it was the last of the clogged up D's as well."

"Naruto?" Kurenai inquired. "But it was I who took it from you yesterday."

Iruka chuckled. "Actually, Naruto had been sending a dozen clones every day for the past month. This was always after he did them with his team and trained, was what he said to me."

"Is he allowed to use clones to do them, or assist himself in doing it?" Yuhi knew her argument was weak. It had a lesser chance of Sasuke smiling, or Sakura becoming a brunette or even Kakashi yelling 'youth' with Gai and crying.

"There is no rule against clones being used or being sent to do them in the first place. They are, essentially Naruto. Even though one of them is more than enough." Iruka said the last part in jest.

"Hey!" Naruto replied in mock anger. He and Iruka have been improving their brother like bond with each other over the month through his clones. He had buried his slight animosity with him due to the S ranked secret. It wasn't Iruka's place to tell him, anyway. It was probably for the best.

The aged Sarutobi chuckled. "Even more so, to bar him from using clones on these missions would be to bar all clones on all missions. This would apply to everyone so this would be a severe handicap, seeing as now that you are starting to using clones a bit more frequently as well, Kurenai."

"Alright." The red eyed woman resigned her argument. "I think it's time for us to do a c rank anyway. We had already accomplished our 25 d ranked mission quota twice over to earn one. May we have one please?"

"Ah yes. Here's a relatively simple one." Iruka quickly searched through the missions stack and pulled one out. "This C rank mission requires you to go to Kimyō town. There has been somewhat suspicious behavior there. Nothing much. It specifies that it will be an investigation; a check-up if you will. This was submitted by the mayor."

"About what?" Naruto wanted to know what he was getting into.

"As I said, nothing much. 'Certain things in some places move somewhere else,' and 'frequent vibrations felt from the ground,' is what it says. I figured that you could take it since Hinata can look around with the byakugan and Neji's already on another mission with Team Gai. Besides Naruto, strange things are right up your alley anyway."

"Hey!" Naruto was indignant, but soon lost all emotion from his face. Iruka figured that he was psyching himself for his first C rank mission. About time for they had a C ranked mission anyway. If Naruto had sent a dozen clones everyday for the past thirty days and they worked in pairs to do each mission, they did…

'180?' Iruka thought, looking up at the ceiling in a thinking position. "He did 180 in the past month. That's a lot for anyone for thirty days, let alone a genin." He mumbled.

Kurenai made a mental note of the mission parameters. "Very well, Hokage-sama. Team 8, let's go."

They filed through the door, Naruto last. As he was about to step through, Iruka called out '180' after him. The boy grinned in realization. "I knew already, Iruka-sensei."

The team went outside the hokage's tower and Kurenai instructed them to leave, pack and prepare themselves for three days. She figured that they would return in a couple days anyway, given the distance between the villages. The students were told to convene at the east gate of the village as they departed.. Soon, she left and did the same.

 **One p.m.**

Naruto came out of his shunshin to find that everyone was there already. They all possessed backpacks except for their teacher, who used seals instead, something Naruto took notice of.

"Kurenai-sensei, are only jounin allowed to use storage seals for personal purposes?" He asked.

"No Naruto. Everyone is permitted to, so long as they can show a legitimate certificate that indicates that they have the necessary skills to use seals. But it makes a slight hassle, having to unseal everything when leaving or entering the village. As I have done already before you came."

"I see."

They started walking, leaving the village for the first time. It felt liberating for Naruto, like leaving a prison after a long sentence. From his point-of-view, it was as if the village walls were penning him in, like a wild animal. Shino, felt nothing, Hinata was a bit felt estranged while Kurenai felt… same old, same old.

"So, Kimyō town, is that right?" Naruto pressed on with questions.

"Hai." She answered, trying to remain curt.

"What sort of economy do they have? I have never heard of them before."

"I have passed through two or three times in the past. It has nothing in particular that's outstanding about it. It feels purely residential and completely ordinary," she explained. She never really expected to hear a question like that, seeing that her stay each time was very brief. She never even got to ask about it or what they do. But she was sure they really had nothing going on or she would have heard about it. In essence, she half-lied.

"Ah." He was satisfied with her answer. "Perhaps you could tell us how far it is? I would prefer to move a bit faster than just a walk?"

"It's fifteen miles away, as the crow flies. Shino, Hinata. Would you like to make haste as well?" Kurenai addressed the other members who had yet to say anything.

"It's not an emergency but it would be more efficient if we did make haste, provided we do not overexert ourselves." The stoic Aburame heir said.

"H-Hai. I don't m-mind."

"Alright. Lets go." Kurenai reaffirmed.

They jumped up off the beaten path into the trees and started tree hopping, Kurenai in the lead, followed by Hinata who was sandwiched by the boys on either side.

Naruto looked to his teammates and grinned at them. " I Guess I'm to thank for the C rank mission now, huh, doing all the D ranks...? We probably would have been catching the cat again, or walking the Inuzuka dogs or something."

"That may be true Naruto-san. Experience in the field is valuable but it would be more prudent to hone our skills more first. And what of the other genin teams? They probably would have to take C ranks as well, or go back to training." Shino said.

"Heh heh. True. But I must say, those D ranks provide some training for me. Trying to catch Tora the cat teaches me to have more stealth, seeing as the feline has a superb sense of smell. Walking the ninken dogs teaches me to assert dominance and have leadership skills. Painting the walls teaches me to have patience to not rush every stroke. Cleaning the sewers. Not my most fond, but it taught me to suffer in silence in a harsh environment. Even if not I'm personally there, I receive the memories of clones so I learn their lessons. That and the fact that three clones have to catch Tora. One to be used as a distraction, another for intimidation, and another to sacrifice its face to the tiger's claws." He said with a chuckle.

"Naruto, why do you do that?" Shino asked after pondering the boy's remark.

"Hmm? Do what?"

"Sometimes you act very mature, other times you act as previously when we were in the academy. You seem to have very distinct mood and personality changes at times." Shino said.

" **I noticed too. It's almost as if you're bipolar with your emotions or something."** The fox stated. He had been thinking about it recently too.

"I act serious when its business but I'm more lax around _friends_." Naruto said in his defense. The reason why he stressed this was unclear, but years later, Hinata would swear that it was because he did **not** consider them as 'friends' yet.

" **Oh?"**

"What about family?" Shino inquired. This could be a new avenue in learning more about the blond.

"I don't have any family. I'm an orphan." The boy looked very dejected. "Don't even know who my parents are. Or if they loved me…" But he suddenly smiled. "But I have really good genes though. I am a lot more awesome than everyone else. That proves that both my parents were probably awesome."

Hinata looked at the boy in confusion. She knew his character well (or so she believed) and knew when he was showing a fake smile. But that's the problem. She couldn't tell if it was fake or not. His voice sounded rich of mirth and he smiled. The smile even wrinkled his eyes a little in earnest. But it still felt...off.

"Gomen."

"You didn't offend me Shino. You didn't know. Even though you were my classmate for three and a half years." Naruto growled a little.

"I didn't want to intrude on your privacy." Shino sounded very convincing, almost convinced himself. But he knew he was a hypocrite, having listened in on almost everyone's private conversations via his kikaichu. He just never heard a conversation about the boy's parents before. But he couldn't argue with that credence.

The boy calmed down. "Well, it's behind us. Besides, if you quizzed me about your own heritage, I would be stumped too."

"True. My clan is a bit secretive, seeing as how we keep to ourselves, being shunned by others for what we hold." A kikaichu crawled out of a pore of the skin on his wrist. He held out the hand in front of him, letting his teammates observe it.

They did not squirm.

Shino gave a very tiny smile, but they couldn't see it due to his high collar. They weren't squeamish about his technique, or his 'guests', at least.

"Well. I guess so," Naruto concluded with a dejected sigh.

Kurenai had listened to the conversation to the conversation that had occurred behind her. She hadn't sympathized with the boy in that aspect; him being an orphan too. He never even got to know his parents, unlike her who had around fourteen years with hers. She frowned as the saying 'better to have loved than lost than never at all' kept circling around in her mind. But almost everyone else in the village kept their grudge against the boy, why not her? And what was that comment about Naruto's moods? The blonde sounded correct when he explained himself. He never really sounded cold to his teammates, only to her and almost all other jounin they interacted with. It really made her wonder. How many jounin and chunin did the boy ask for help? Certainly not all of them, but it was probably a good portion of them, giving the boy the idea that everyone was out to get him. She couldn't blame him there, since she brushed him off when he wanted help. But he did seem as though he was trying to forgive her, seeing him lose some of his attitude that he had one full month ago. She closed her eyes and shook her head. She would ponder later.

By now, they were only one mile away from Kimyō town and they finished the rest of the journey in silence, each in their own thoughts. However, while Naruto thought of the mission, he was ignorant of the fact that everyone was thinking about him. A bit ironic that in the past when he wanted everyone's attention.

Finally they jumped out of the tree line and dashed the last hundred meters to the entrance of the town. It seemed a bit quaint and old fashioned, given how out of the way it was, and the lack of electric lines, indicating that they were behind Konohagakure no Sato progress-wise. But they didn't mind that.

They had a mission to do.

 **Well, that's it. This arc is going to take a couple chapters. No. not tiny chapters. I decided to start typing 10 k chappies, hence the now sporadic updates (However, I stopped this one at ten.) . I told you before that this might soon happen, when the story finally got on its legs. I wanted to save the investigation for the next one. No, this one ain't filler, think of it as a report on how Naruto is. And the reflex is not like the sharingan, which shows the user an increased perception of time to react. This ability feels more like a sixth sense, like...Spiderman's the best example. I've seen examples of him unable to see, but he reacted none the less perfectly.**

 **He only has the wind affinity though, only his elemental bunshins wield their respective affinities. So he's not super strong, seeing as that is a major handicap. I once read a story called 'God Naruto' by 'Narutonega.' I think. Point of the story's reference? I think of it as a measuring stick to how op Naruto could be. All affinities, yin and yang release, a very powerful space-time Ninjutsu, all dojutsus and bloodline releases, blacklight from Prototype, Phoenix and Dragon sage etc. So… heh heh. He ain't overpowered like that, or ever will be here. (This chapter has been revised) Please review and tell me what you think. Well, that's it.**

 **Sayonara.**


	15. Chapter 15

**I am horrified. Why is it that I always find mistakes after posting a chapter even though I proofread? Damn you autocorrect! Why have you forsaken me! (Sigh.) Well, anyway, here's chapter 15. Hope you enjoy. I also hope you'll review, but that's a pipe dream. But you are welcome to prove me wrong. (This chapter has been revised. Hopefully, mistakes will be fewer.)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

 **Claim: MRAY's plot twists, OCs, original jutsus and Naruto's abilities that are yet to be named. (I mean that I'm not ready to tell you.)**

 **15.**

The team of four entered the village as one, the red eyed woman in the lead, followed closely by a boy with a whiskered visage, a withdrawn looking youth and a lavender eyed girl. The woman seemed indifferent but all of her charges looked a bit anxious, being on their first 'real' mission.

"Remember. We are not on vacation. Even though it promises to be a very dull mission, if not a false alarm, we need to remain alert. We are not in the Hidden Leaf anymore. Any and every mission has a chance of combatants. Am I clear?" Kurenai stated, looking ahead while she walked.

"Hai, Kurenai-sensei." Her students replied in unison, albeit differently.

"Alright. Let's go see the mayor." Kurenai turned aside a little to speak to a civilian, asking for directions to the mayor's office. The old woman she asked seemed a bit out of it. Yuhi had to raise her voice so she could hear her. After a very trying five minutes, they got the directions they needed and made their way to the mayor's office. Soon arriving to an average sized door entrance for a small L shaped building, Yuhi knocked sharply.

It was slightly eerie, but as if someone had hid behind the door waiting for the knock, it was opened by a portly looking man in an average quality brown and black kimono. His facial features had all the makings of a fifty year old grandfather who always smiled but now it was creased in an expression of worry.

"Oh! You startled me; I was just on my way out. Kon-nichi wa. How can I help you?" he answered.

"Kon-nichi wa. We're looking for the mayor." Kurenai answered.

"That would be me, My name is Kinkou." he replied. He looked them over for the first time and noticed that each person had a hitai-ate with the leaf insignia on them. "I see. You're the team sent to investigate the unusual happenings. You are very punctual." He replied.

"Good thing I suggested that we should run. We made a good impression," Naruto whispered to Shino.

"Hai. Thank you. If you may, if you're not too busy, would you explain in detail what this is all about?" The red eyed woman continued.

"Very well. I was only out for a bit of fresh air. We shall walk to the disturbed scenes while I explain."

Team 8 stepped to one side to allow the man to pass through the doorway and the man locked the door behind him. He started to walk down the street while Kurenai and her team followed closely behind.

"There isn't any trouble per say. The trouble lies that the scenarios are disturbing." The man began. "When I speak of things moving, I mean that sometimes in the middle of the night, some people can see some trees moving."

"Please explain." She needed something less vague.

"The trees. I don't mean like the wind swaying or moving their branches. I mean that they move entirely, as if they could walk, I was told. In all cases, namely around four dozen trees have entirely disappeared by morning."

"Disappeared?"

"Hai. Not just trees are disturbed. Sometimes, the land itself shakes a bit, if ever so slightly." The mayor said.

"Earthquakes, Kinkou-sama?" Naruto asked. 'Why would that happen?'

"I'm not sure. It happens quite frequently nowadays, especially in the nights. The ground doesn't really shake, it's very mild. It vibrates, I should say."

"Vibrates?" The blond asked, dumbfounded.

The man nodded in answer. He decided to continue making his way to their destination. Once they arrived they could see what he was talking about. In the meanwhile, let them wrack their brains. Perhaps they could come up with some good theories. After five more minutes of walking, the mayor stopped and pointed into an empty field.

"What do you see?" he asked.

All of his companions raised a questioning eyebrow. What was this man driving at?

The mayor watched them. He was going to see if they were really observant, as he heard that all ninja were.

"I… don't know." Naruto answered. The boy stepped unto the field, looked around and scratched his head. He could see deep holes, overturned soil and some furrows. "I can't make sense of this." He mumbled. 'What's so special about this?' He looked around at the surrounding area, all of which were the same. His eyes settled on one small tree in lone corner. It was only twice his height and devoid of leaves.

"Oh!" The boy snapped his fingers, "The trees are missing!"

"Hai." Kinkou seemed relieved that they could figure it out. If they couldn't see what was wrong when he was telling them, then they probably wouldn't have figured out the conundrum of the big picture. He was a bit disappointed that it was a boy instead of his teacher who realized it.

The boy had his mouth saying a silent 'oh…' "The trees looked like they were uprooted whole and dragged somewhere. That explains the holes, overturned soil and dragging furrows. We'll follow it later. But why were the trees removed? Who would move them or have anything to do with them?"

"I have no idea. They are about two dozen missing from this location and another two dozen missing over there, behind those other trees." He pointed to the right were tall oaks grew. "I still can't figure out for the life of me what they would want with these trees." Kinkou said.

"This is a bit bizarre." Kurenai remarked. "Is there anything special about these trees? Are they worth money? Possess an exotic poison? Anything?"

"No special reason that I know of. They are fairly common. Even I have one of these trees in my backyard."

This was baffling. Who would get off from stealing **trees**? And why would the ground vibrate?

"In the meantime," the mayor spoke to the musing team. "You may accommodate yourselves in comfort in my village. While I know we may not have many worldly comforts, one can be satisfied by frugal means." He started to walk again to the village with the team trailing behind.

 **Somewhere else, unknown.**

A man walked with his companion along a winding dirt track that was beaten by feet. The two men were dressed in animal skins of that particular area, albeit crude looking but very comfortable. It made sense though, given their backgrounds and purposes, one did not wear their best when their work involved a lot of dirt, seeing that the men's attire was soiled badly.

"How far along are we now?" the first one said.

"Won't be too long now, if it really is there," his companion replied shortly. "You know how I feel about all of this. It feels barbaric."

The first only spat to the other side of the path in his answer. "Why do you keep bring that up? If it's done correctly, everyone will get a little something, and we'll get the most. I'm telling you, it's there, not some made up legend. Just think about it, we'll be rich! Being able to do whatever we want whenever we want. Besides, if you back out, you'll be in the same boat as me."

"Shita…" The second said as if admonishing him. "They didn't come willingly you know. Sooner or later, if and when we strike it rich, those people will talk. They work for little and when they get apiece of the rewards, the ones who came willingly will turn against us and tell the authorities."

"Promise them a little more of the cut. If they don't comply, kill them and get fresher blood to work with. Besides, if worst comes to worst, we threaten them to work and bury them when they fulfill their purpose." The now named Shita said. He shifted the large bag that was positioned over his shoulder to be a little more comfortable for carrying. The load was certainly heavy and his brother, Sato, was in no better position, seeing that he was also burdened by a similar weight as well.

"I still don't like this." Sato said hesitantly. "You know that I was never one much for killing." He frowned. "Unlike you."

Shita chuckled as he kicked a stray pebble out of his path. "Sometimes I wonder if we really came from the same parents. It's like we are two different fruits of two different trees. At most, all we really share are our looks and abilities. Well. At least I think I'm the better looking one anyway." He joked.

Sato laughed. "I don't know why I'm getting so worked up about." All of his previous concerns were now forgotten due to the easing tension. "Even if we are twins… you're still the uglier bastard." He lightly jabbed his brother in the ribs, almost dropping his own bag. He looked around at the change in scenery, depicted by the difference in flora and lack of even a footpath now.

The brothers soon came up to a very large and shady tree. They now removed the six foot bags off their shoulders and very carefully laid them down on the ground. They looked around and sensed for anyone who could be watching them but couldn't find any. They bent down next to the tree and opened some kind of sliding lid panel in the ground that revealed darkness, as if looking into a well. They dropped their baggage in there first and looked to each other, as if asking the other to go first. Sato nodded and went down the hole while Shita watched him go.

Shita grinned. Soon, it will all pay off. All of the ridicule that was directed at his brother and himself will soon be worth it. He followed in after, closing the top behind him.

 **With Team 8**

Naruto paced the room while Shino watched him. If he continued much more, he would soon wear a rutted out path in the floor.

"What do you think Shino?" he stopped and asked.

The Aburame was seated on his own single bed trying to make sense of what had happened as well. Both Naruto and Shino shared a room in the local inn, across the hall from their female counterparts of the team. While he wouldn't admit it, he liked having the blond for a roommate, seeing that the lad was now a very brilliant thinker. After all, he figured out the mayor's puzzle earlier when he himself had no clue. He might be a good person to reason with in the future. If it's one thing the members of his clan prided themselves in, it was possessing _very_ rational thinking at all times.

"There is something indeed special about those particular trees. Why else would they take trees of only that variety?" The clan heir thought aloud.

"That's what I'm thinking as well. It can't be physical properties like height and size and location and such. There are trees taller and shorter, some easier to reach than the ones stolen and all that."

"Do you think we are making mountains out of mole hills, Naruto-san?"

"No. Yes… maybe. The mayor said that all privately owned trees are still present. Only two of those tree groves were taken. It could be that some drifter with a passing interest in botany recognized them for some unique purpose. But why take them at night? Someone took them at that time, obviously not wanting to reveal themselves for who they are. That's very suspicious behavior. And what about the ground slightly shaking? Both situations are connected, somewhere." He stated, starting to pace again. "Maybe someone around here has some proficiency in botany can tell us about that tree." He stopped and looked at his teammate. "Wanna come along?"

The stoic boy got up. "Very well."

They exited the room and informed their sensei next door that they were going to look for a botanist. She gave her consent a bit reluctantly but the boys did not notice. They exited the inn and walked down the street. They were traversing in silence before Naruto broke it.

"Hey, Shino. Can I ask you something?"

Said boy turned his head to the boy, waiting to be asked.

"It's about your kikaichu beetles. What do they eat, seeing that I have never seen you feed them?"

Shino sighed inwardly. It was an innocent question. There was no morbid fascination or disgust about it. "All they eat is chakra."

"Chakra? So does that mean they eat yours from time to time?"

"Hai. Quite frequently. It is in some ways owed to them for aiding me in my battles."

"So I'm guessing that your reserves are paralleled with a restaurant." Naruto chuckled as he thought of the complications. "Do they leave behind…biological waste?"

The Aburame almost smiled. Almost. He had to give a congratulation to Naruto, though. He had asked the previous questions to lead up to this one, or try to figure out if his residents did… **that** in his body.

"No, Uzumaki-san. They do not. It's a very profitable case of mutual gain for both sides. I give them some chakra and in exchange they help me fight in my battles."

"I see."

They walked to the center of the village and asked someone for the directions to a botanist or local florist. To their dismay, the only florist they had in the village had passed on several months prior but they were told that her sister had some passing knowledge on the subject. They finished getting the woman's address and soon found her home.

She lived in a double story building but she resided on the upper floor while her shop on the ground floor was still in the process of being converted to be an extended version of her home.

The boys knocked on the door and waited for a response. Sure enough, it came.

"Coming!" A woman's voice answered, the reply seemed to have come from upstairs. Soon enough, the woman opened the door. The boys took in her appearance. She was dressed in a casual yellow blouse and an ankle length green skirt which fit her slim body quiet well, while a bit nondescript in facial appearances; she had a rather bright smile blessed by dimples as she welcomed the boys.

"Kon-nichi wa, shinobi-san," she said, observing the boy's hitai ate. At first she thought they were too young to be ninjas but she decided to let it slide. Who was she to judge?

"How can I help you?"

"We are trying to find out information about a certain type of tree that has started to go missing recently?" Naruto asked.

"Oh! I know what you're talking about. Come on inside." She invited the boys into her abode. She stepped aside to allow the boys passage inside. Upon entering, the first thing the young ninjas noticed was that the room was filled with plants, so much so that they occupied all surfaces that wasn't already filled, but in some cases they were placed on top of those things anyway. All tables, on books, on the ground, all over. Even though most of them were plants that were currently flowering, it still made the room look a bit messy.

The woman saw them looking over the room and chuckled a bit. "Ah, I love so many of these plants that whenever I come into contact with them that I can't bear to throw them away. Especially when they are all I have that remind me of…" The woman's eyes glazed over a little. "Never mind. May I have your names?"

The Uzumaki and Aburame looked at each other before Naruto answered. "My name is Naruto and his name is Shino. Yours?"

"My name is Jinshin Baibai. Now, you said that you were asking about those trees that started disappearing." She said to the blond. He seemed to be more inclined to speak anyway.

"Hai. Can you tell us about them?"

"They started disappearing three weeks ago. Not all at once though. At first, they disappeared by twos, then threes, and then before anyone realized it, they were all gone. At first, we thought that someone could have been clearing land for living space, but now we all know that it was all about those trees."

"Oh?" Shino said to himself.

"Do you have one of these trees in your possession?" he asked.

"H-hai. I have one behind the house." She turned on her heel and beckoned them to follow. They obliged and passed through another room that had a door open which was slightly ajar. The boys started to follow the woman a bit more closely, seeing that this door led outside, judging by the sunlight that wafted in through the door jamb. Baibai led them through it to behold that the woman had quiet a few trees in her yard, mostly those that bore fruits. Naruto's stomach growled audibly at the sight of those trees, much to the woman's amusement. She told him to partake while Shino followed her to the tree in question.

Arriving at the tree's location, the boy could not believe what the fuss was all about, seeing such an unremarkable tree. It looked like a ten foot tall hedge tree with a very supple trunk that swayed.

"That's it." Jinshin pointed at the tree.

"I see. Do you what it's called?"

"I don't know what its right name is but my mother said that people from her generation called it tonikkuwōtā. Don't know why though. Also, my sister used to use the leaves to make tea often. She was very peppy, though, drinking teas from all kinds of trees and plants. She was a bit adventurous like that, not knowing what's poisoned from what's not. I only drank it once but I didn't like the taste." The woman seemed to look off into space again before shaking her head to gather her thoughts. 'I miss you kaa-chan and Enerugi-neechan…' She looked at Shino. "I'm sorry, did you say something?"

"Hai. Would you mind if I took a handful of leaves for my own research intentions?"

"You may."

The boy grasped some of the leaves and picked them. "Thank you for your time, Baibai-san. I hope that our efforts will provide results."

"You and me both, Shino-san."

 **With Kurenai and Hinata**

The red-eyed woman got up off of her single-size bed and made her way to the window and looked out, feeling a bit undermined. The mayor had practically told them what the problem was and yet she was outdone in thinking by a genin. **A genin.** Even more so, one who was supposed to be the dead-last of his year. (Cough-years-cough.) Hell, he was still clueless about his female teammate. He might be smart, clever, sly, knowledgeable… but still oblivious to the simple things.

"K-kurenai-sensei?"

"Hai, Hinata?" The jounin acknowledged the girl who had been silent the whole time.

"I-I have b-been thinking about the relationship between you and N-Naruto-kun." She sat up on the bed and braced herself with her arms backwards, facing her teacher.

"Hai? What about it?" she did not like where this conversation was going.

"It's not m-m-my place to say, but it s-seems that you dislike or h-hate him." The girl continued. "E-especially on t-the day t-the team was formed."

"We may not be each other's most favorite person right now." Yuhi made an attempt to try to make a very slight dodge around the question. "We are merely members of the same team, there is no rule that stipulates that we have to love all team members…"

"So y-you d-don't like him then. You d-dislike him. Is it b-because he is an orphan and everyone else of t-the 'rookies' are c-clan heirs or have notable b-backgrounds?" In a sense Hinata was right. Even though Sasuke himself was an orphan, he was a clan heir to the Uchihas. Even Sakura's mother was on the council.

"No, far from it. I don't dislike him because he is an orphan." Kurenai realized her blunder too late, having just admitted to detesting the boy.

"S-so is it b-because of w-what happened at training g-ground four? He seemed to know y-you already when you m-met us."

Kurenai knew that she couldn't tell the girl the S ranked secret that haloed the boy. While it may have been tempting to potentially rid the girl of her infatuation with the boy, it might not work, considering that she heard that the girl had a heart of gold she inherited from her mother. Besides, even if it worked, she would be dead, never to see it happen anyway.

"He… pranked me in the past." It was a lie, but believable. Naruto had a rather impressive streak of pranking in the past. But she forgot that the boy had some kind of creed when it came to pranking. Everyone knew that he only pranked people 'who deserved' it though, so…

"R-really? What d-did you d-do to him?"

Kurenai cursed. Why was the girl so inquisitive? But what was worse, she couldn't answer the question. Naruto hadn't done anything to her while in return she had snubbed him. So what did she hate the boy for? "I c-can't recall doing anything."

 **AN - (Plausible deniability. Sigh. I hate that.)**

"What brought this conversation up, Hinata?"

Now the Hyuuga was the one on the spot. "I-I w-wanted to know w-why everyone seems to h-hate him. I d-don't see anything wrong with him, or see him d-d-do anything wrong." She blushed a deep shade of red.

Kurenai sighed inwardly in relief. It was really getting awkward and while she felt a little guilty capitalizing on the girl's emotions to stop its potentially dangerous outcome, she knew that was a way of the ninja. To exploit every weakness, strike every crack and attack every Achilles heel.

A knock came at the door. Kurenai refocused her attention to it and tried to sense for the chakra signature(s) behind it. 'Oh. It's Shino and Naruto. What do they want?' But she'd rather just pretend that she didn't know who they are.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"It me and Shino." Naruto replied from the other side. "May we come in?"

"You may." 'At least he has manners,' she thought.

The door was pushed open by the blond and he entered, close at his heels was the more stoic of the pair. They momentarily looked around and spied two chairs at the foot of each bed. The boy's each took a seat and looked at their sensei.

"Well?" she looked at them intently.

"We've been trying to do our own little investigative work and we've found out a couple of interesting things." The Uzumaki said, looking confident. He was sure that they were making some progress.

She raised an eyebrow. "What have you found?" she tried to keep the irritable tones out of he voice. Perhaps the credibility that came with figuring out what was wrong could have gone to his head. 'Am I jealous?'

"For starters, we found out about how and what the tree looked like. It was a fairly unremarkable hedge tree and it seems that there were a lot more useful varieties out in the area. They're not worth money or poisonous, like what you said this morning. We were told by a botanist's sister that she had drunk it as tea, along with her mother." Naruto recalled. "But in every situation, where they were growing in abundance, they were in a sense, 'reaped.' Also, they are fairly common around here and only a few people like five or so had complained that they lost this sort of tree. But Shino did his own 'research' also." Naruto made the universally (and multiversally) recognized air quotes when he said 'research'.

"It's true. I have some of the leaves with me." The Aburame took out a small handful of leaves from his pocket.

"Do you recognize it, Hinata?" Naruto asked. "I remember when you said you did flower pressing. I'm thinking that this tree may have had flowers and you might research plants?"

"I-I'm sorry I can't h-help. I only pressed flowers I b-bought."

"To continue," Shino said. "I had two of my kikaichu sample a leaf each and they became… erratic and uncontrollable. They became hyperactive and died in ten minutes after eating it. They could not tell me what was wrong with it. I believe that Hinata-san might see something in the leaves with her byakugan."

Hinata looked to their sensei who nodded in response. She made her unique handseals and activated her dojutsu. "Byakugan!"

Instantly, all colour left her field of vision and was replaced by different shades of gray in all directions. She then observed the leaves Shino held out in front of her, seeing unusual about it at first. Until she looked more closely in the 'veins' of the leaf and saw that chakra ran through them, almost like a miniature chakra network. But it was so tiny she doubted that it had any real significance; she saw that in every leaf.

"I-I d-don't see anything unusual. Even t-the chakra in the leaf is a b-bit lower in amount in c-comparison of other leaves on m-more important trees I've seen in the p-past."

"Hold on there," Naruto said. "Trees have chakra running through them?"

"Yes Naruto. All living things have chakra running through them." Kurenai said. "Hinata, arigato. You may deactivate your byakugan." Said girl's byakugan always made the girl look as if she was glaring. Glaring really didn't really suit her and it really disturbed the jounin. Not that she would ever admit it. "As I was saying, all living things contain, create or store chakra. But obviously this particular plant's appeal can't about the chakra. So what else did you find out?"

Naruto spoke up. "While I said earlier that it wasn't poisonous, after seeing Shino's kikaichu die from consuming it, I started to suspect that it may have some sort of bad element to it that may be poison, or at least to kikaichu insects. The botanist's sister told me that her mother and the botanist herself drank tea from that tree's leaves but didn't suffer any adverse effects. But I did note that she said that the botanist was very energetic…like Shino's insects before they died. She also died fairly early in life but since this town is behind in progress everyone just said that she died from natural causes. It wasn't autopsied."

Kurenai looked thoughtful. "So you believe that the woman might have been drinking this so-called tea for a long time before it finally poisoned her but due to the kikaichu's size only one 'large' dose was enough to kill them in minutes."

"B-but someone wouldn't w-want this p-plant for poisonous purposes. There are other m-more effective poisons that k-kill in minutes or very slowly, all in one d-dose." Hinata remarked in a tone of fact.

"Perhaps they would want it for the energy properties. We know that the woman was described as 'very energetic.' And my insects were also hyperactive in nature." Shino noted.

"That still doesn't make much sense. After all, soldier pills offer chakra and a lot of tonics and enhancers or even eating more carbohydrates provide more energy. It provides very little energy and it kills you." Naruto said, getting a bit confused.

"Perhaps we should sleep on it. Let us try to look for answers about the earth shaking now." Kurenai suggested. "Hinata, can you look into the ground with your byakugan?"

"N-no, K-kurenai-sensei. It wouldn't be productive because m-mine isn't d-d-developed enough. But even if it were, The b-byakugan wouldn't be able to see more than thirty meters below the ground. It's too thick and the g-ground is like a neutral zone that c-can't be seen t-through so easily."

"Hmm." The Uzumaki was thoughtful. "What about where the trees were uprooted where we visited with the mayor? I remember seeing tracks where the trees were uprooted. We could just follow those, see where it leads...?"

"That seems to be our best course of action. Let's go." Kurenai told them. They left the inn and started ninja sprinting back to the site and started looking around for the tracks. Soon, Shino found where all of them conjoined and created one large dragged line in the soft dirt. He beckoned to his team and they started to walk and follow it, Kurenai in the lead as usual.

'Hey Kurama.'

No response.

'Kurama!'

" **Shut the hell up! I'm trying to sleep! What do you want?"**

'Um. To say hi?' Naruto joked.

The Kitsune groaned. **"Hello. Now what do you really want?"**

'Something really risky. And I want you to be my conscience. You know, that voice in the back of my head that tells me not to.'

" **What did I miss?"**

'Just listen to this conversation. You'll know.' "Hey Shino."

The Aburame looked to Naruto with a questioning vibe.

"Can I have one of the leaves?"

Kurenai turned around to look at the blond. "What do you need it for?"

The boy grinned. "I'm going to eat it."

Hinata paled, thinking of the complications. "Naruto-kun, no!" (No stutter! ^_^).

Shino gave the boy the leaf, who was poised to eat it. Kurenai still wasn't sure if she should warn him or not. But she did it anyway. At least that way he wouldn't die or fall extremely ill on her watch. She really didn't want those kinds of complications, already in metaphorical hot water where the Hokage was concerned.

"Naruto. Don't. We still aren't sure what it does and all who have eaten it have perished."

" **What is it? Poison?! Are you going to poison yourself on purpose?! Of all the bullshit you've ever done you're going to poison yourself?! What is that going to prove?"**

"Relax, Kurenai-sensei. My 'abilities' will negate the poison in it, if there is any. Besides, it will tell me what's in it."

The male clan heir lifted an eyebrow over his shades. "What ability is that Naruto-san?" 'There it is. Something that is kept secret from all of us. What is he hiding?'

"I'm not at liberty to say. Besides, it doesn't kill people with one leaf." He raised the leaf to his lips.

Hinata still looked worried. "Don't…!"

It was too late. He already ate it.

 **In the forest**

A hole opened in the ground via a lid that revealed two men that started to emerge from its inky black darkness. The men climbed out and dusted themselves off. They appeared to be very pleased with themselves, judging from their facial expressions.

"Well, they started to work again. I told you it would be a good concoction. I just hope that this batch doesn't kill them like the last ones."

"Yeah. Guess you were right, Shita. How long before they find it? The longer we stay the more suspicion we garner before they call for ninja to seek out the problem?"

"Bah. They're not going to miss a couple of trees. Besides, I've even heard that a lot of people have them at home. We didn't steal anything 'cause that wasn't privately owned land, just an open field. Speaking of which, did you cover up the tracks we made when we dragged the damned trees?"

Sato's eyes widened in urgency. "Oh shit. I forgot. I was supposed to do that yesterday!"

Shita sighed. "It can't be helped. You'll just have to do it now."

Sato started to ninja sprint to the field, using earth manipulation to level out all of the telltale signs of evidence foolishly made.

Shita looked at the retreating figure of his brother. Why did he have to be so short minded? He shrugged and went back inside the hole.

 **With team eight**

The team watched Naruto regarded Naruto with different emotions. One with worry, one with curiosity and the last one with mere interest.

"Well? You said that your 'ability' would tell you what it was made of." Kurenai said.

"Give it a minute," the Uzumaki replied. "Ugh. What a horrible taste, though. She must have only drank that tea for the effects, not the taste. No wonder her sister didn't like it." 'What did you find Kurama?'

" **I found out that it tastes bitter. I also found out that you're a thrice damned idiot."**

'Not that!'

" **The leaf has quite a bit of natural chakra in it."**

"Chakra, huh?" the boy said out loud, also telling his teammates who started thinking about the response.

" **Hai. This chakra, as you can guess is found in nature. It is a much stronger variant of 'regular chakra' that the normal shinobi use for their techniques."**

'I understand. I'll just do some research on it later. But if it's stronger, doesn't that mean it's better and more efficient?'

" **Not always. Many types of nature chakra have disastrous side effects."**

'There's a variety of natural chakras?'

" **Of course there are. Perhaps this one's side effects is death with extended use or a large overdose like what you just told me about Shino's kikaichu. So you'll be fine."**

'What is it doing now?'

" **It looks like the chakra is trying to improve your strength and give you an energy boost… oh Kami…"**

'What?'

" **Last thing I need to see is you getting hyperactive again."**

Naruto sweat dropped. 'So that's the diagnosis?'

" **Yeah. Now leave me alone. I want to sleep."**

He cut the mental link creating the conversation and turned back to his team members. "The leaf had natural chakra."

"Natural chakra?!"

"N-natural chakra?"

Shino remained silent as he continued to listen.

The Uzumaki continued to explain what the Kyuubi told him about the leaf's properties. He even went on to assure them that he would be fine.

"H-hai. I understand. Although it l-looked the s-same, the n-n-natural chakra is far m-more p-potent." The blue-haired girl was relieved and a tad insecure about her previous observation. "B-but how d-did you know it was Natural c-chakra?"

Naruto panicked. How was he supposed to tell her how he knew it was natural chakra without telling her about Kurama?

"Um. My 'ability' told me so. I had read up on natural chakra so I knew how to identify it." He lied.

Kurenai nodded knowingly while her other students accepted the lie. "That's fine. Let's continue."

Shino asked Naruto how he got his ability and what sort it was. Naruto considered how he and Shino have been on fairly good terms and he deserved to know. But not yet.

"I'll tell you in six months. That's a promise." He was solemn. The bug user merely nodded in response. He was curious, that much was true. But he wouldn't doubt the Uzumaki. There was nothing to suggest that he wouldn't tell him. And if he forgot, he had a lot of insects who probably would remember and remind him.

The team continued to walk along the tracks when they were suddenly stopped by the teacher who held out her hand sideways. They were instantly alert, fully lucid as their teacher was. A man dressed in animal skins walked out from behind a tree, waving his hand in a friendly greeting. "Kon-nichi wa! I'm a bit lost and I'm trying to find my way back to the town! Would you mind pointing me in the right direction?" he grinned sheepishly.

The team looked at the man with interest. Kurenai was still suspicious of the fact that the man had travelled really stealthily and she only became aware of him when he was close by. The junior members dropped their battle stances, convinced that the man in front of them was a civilian.

"It's that way, mister." Naruto pointed in the village's general direction behind him. "You're not too far, though."

"Is that so? Arigato, young man. I'll be on my way." He started to walk past them and the team let him pass, seeing nothing wrong. The man continued walking briskly, his figure soon shrinking as he travelled into the distance.

"Let's continue, team eight." Yuhi urged and they resumed following the tracks, but all too soon they came to an abrupt end in the forest.

"What? Where are they?" Naruto appeared perplexed. They just upped and vanished. That was not normal behavior.

"W-what do we d-do sensei?" Hinata asked.

 **Kurenai P.O.V.**

All of a sudden they heard an explosion and the ground beneath them collapsed, giving way to a gaping hole, filled with rock spikes. They hovered in the air for a brief millisecond before starting to fall. Kurenai disappeared in a plume of smoke, indicating that she had replaced herself with a kage bunshin from earlier but her students were starting to freefall into the pit. Her substitution had placed her in the trees but to get to her students she would have to jump down into the hole with extra force but her descent would cause her to fall to her death faster than she would be able to react. She would not be able to save her students. She had taken an espionage tactic at first; she had not taken a counter-ambush tactic.

Suddenly, Shino materialized in another tree, also an apparent substitution with a clone.

But that meant that Naruto and Hinata were about to die.

 **Naruto P.O.V.**

The explosion rocked the earth beneath his feet and the ground broke up and collapsed, revealing a deathtrap by spikes. The boy panicked but his hands instantly moved on their own using reflexes and grabbed Hinata's wrist with his left hand and grabbed a kunai with his right hand from his kunai holster and dug it into the earthen wall. It started to slow his descent considerably but it would still be enough to skewer them on the spikes that rushed up to approach them. His focus now returned and with it, his understanding of the situation.

"Hinata, grab my waist!"

The girl who was in a state of panic and her mouth contorted in a silent scream grabbed the boy around his waist in a hug. The boy whipped out another kunai, this one from his left sleeve stabbed it into the side of the pit as well, finally slowing them to a stop. He held on to the kunai that were now way over his head; his hand now at full extension. Naruto gritted his teeth and pulled himself up to them now at chest level before gathering his bearings. That's when he saw.

All around the trap were paper bomb tags, mostly at the top of the hole. His eyes widened.

"Shit!"

He quickly made an overhand pass with his left hand over the right kunai. He braced only on his left hand on both kunai handles sticking out; the elbow on the left one and gripping the right in his palm. The lad pried off Hinata off his waist with his right hand and held onto her hand. "Go Hinata!"

He threw the girl out of the hole where she was caught by her teacher, who heaved a great sigh of relief. Two seconds later an explosion filled the hole, with fire spewing out of the top in all its fury like a miniature volcano before the hole collapsed in on itself, sealing Naruto inside; leaving the hapless boy to his fate.

"Naruto-kun!" The girl started to weep for the boy inside while the teacher looked on, not sure what to believe; whether if the boy was still alive and kicking, or if he had sacrificed himself to save her student.

 **Hole: Two seconds prior final explosion.**

The boy saw her form disappear outside the top, leaving him alone.

*Budup* His heart beat loudly.

He quickly made another overhand pass with his right hand as well, resting both elbows on the kunais and made the cross seal.

" **Iwa bunshin no jutsu."**

*Budup*

Instantly the two clones appeared beside him and grabbed him as they started to fall together towards the spikes once more, their combined weight too much for the kunais. At the last second, the both clones merged one of their arms with the wall while still holding onto Naruto. They hugged him and yelled.

" **Doton: Yoroi iwa kokera!"** (Earth release: Protective rock scales)

*Budup*

An explosion rocked the pit.

 **Outside the hole**

The girl was being comforted by her teacher while Shino was skeptical. There was no way a guy could blow up so many acres of a training ground and not survive a low level explosion like that.

One minute later, a small portion of the ground was pushed up and penetrated by two pairs of hands. This attracted the rest of team eight's attention to the growing development. Two Naruto doppelgangers pushed through the collapsing entryway of the hole and pulled themselves out. They then lied down near the maw of the hole and reached a hand inside and pulled out the original who appeared disoriented.

The girl stopped crying and ran over to the boy and hugged him tightly, even though he was too out of it to notice.

"Arigato gozaimasu, Naruto-kun!" (Thank you very much)

"Wha… Hinata?"

Said girl blushed a deep shade of crimson and stopped hugging the lad. The iwa bunshins who watched the scene grinned before they dispelled into rocks of assorted sizes. Naruto roused himself back to lucidity and stood up. "Hah! I'm still awesome!" He exclaimed shakily.

"Naruto, you're the only person I know who says that after a near-death experience." Shino said. Naruto could have sworn that he smiled while saying it but his high collar hid it.

"Yeah, I'm a unique person. So are you alright Hinata?"

The girl's orginal limpid complexion became like that of a tomato. "H-h-hai. Arigato."

"Aw, you thanked me already. That's what we're supposed to do. Look out for each other. You would have done the same for me too, I bet. Good thing I ate that leaf of I wouldn't have able to expend myself so much physically."

Kurenai seethed when she heard that. "None the less, someone tried to kill us. Something worth protecting is out here for someone to go that far. It could even have been that happy-go-lucky man who passed us. He could have been a ninja who set this up."

"How right you are."

Everyone looked to the source of the voice and saw the same man who they had passed earlier was about thirty yards off away from them, his upper torso sticking out of the ground in such a manner that it appeared as if it was melded with the ground.

He now wore a hitai ate that bore the symbol of Iwagakure.

The Kyuubi saw the man through Naruto's eyes and frowned. Naruto still didn't know of his heritage yet, or hadn't realized it yet and the last thing he needed was resemblance to the Yondaime Hokage. Naruto would learn about who his parents were eventually, but not now.

" **Naruto, raise your hood and keep it on."**

The boy obliged, no questions asked. If he had any, he would just ask them later.

The man regarded the action but did not take real note in it. "You have no business here. This is private property," He said to the group.

"We're travelling." The woman answered the lie with one of her own, fully aware that the man was a shinobi who wanted to dissuade them from going any further, probably to hide something she had theorized about. "May we pass? This is the quickest way to our destination."

"Isn't this t-the same person who passed us g-going t-to the village? Hinata asked.

The man saw that he could no longer keep up the charade and threw four kunai at the team as quick as a blink. They responded by dodging and the combatants started fighting.

" **Doton: Zetsubo tsukamu!** "(Earth release: Despair's clutches.) The man slammed his palms against the ground and poured chakra into the technique. The soil instantly went from dry into a form of quick mud that caused everything above it to sink. The team leapt into the tress before the ground destabilized to trap them but the trees started to sink into it. Apparently the jutsu could have very well extended into the sub levels of soil in an effort to bury them alive. Kurenai casted a genjutsu on the man to make him think that the jutsu had already succeeded in killing them in the hopes of him cancelling it. He fell under it while Shino sent his kikaichu to drain the man's chakra. As they settled on him he broke the genjutsu's hold over him and substituted with a log. No longer feeding chakra into the technique, the ground stopped pulling things into it and solidified, making it safe to traverse.

The team dropped out of the tree branches onto the ground. (Which used to be 25 ft high but was now 5 instead.) Hinata activated her byakugan and started to look around for the man but couldn't find him. It was even worse seeing that the man's chakra in the ground made the ground look blurry.

"Do you see him Hinata?" Kurenai asked.

"N-no."

Naruto nodded and created two iwa bunshins who sank into the ground using the **Chika hira no jutsu**. Moments later he received their memories. This man, whoever he was or is a professional at that same jutsu. He had disposed of his clones so skillfully it was like a work of art.

His six sense kicked in, making him jump away. "Everyone, jump!" he yelled in warning. They also leapt away as they were told as dozens of rock branched spikes extended out of the ground where they were a second before.

" **Doton: Shinko kushi ni sasu**!" (Earth release: Rising Skewer) a muffled voice sounded from underground.

They regarded the spectacle with horror but Kurenai was merely worried. This man was fighting at a jounin level. While she was an elite herself, by flooding the ground with his chakra she could not sense when he was performing techniques. She would have died along with the rest of the team if Naruto hadn't warned them of the coming technique. They were at a significant disadvantage, furthermore she had her charges to look after.

"Team, retreat back to the town!" she ordered.

The team looked to her and started ninja sprinting out of the combat zone. As soon as they reached the taller trees they jumped back up to the branches and started tree hopping back to the village. But before they could get very far a half dozen kunais took root in Kurenai's back and the woman slumped and fell out of the tree onto the ground, blood already seeping into the ground, staining it.

The junior squad members stared in shock as the man suddenly came out of a shunshin in a tree in front of them.

"I can't let you leave just yet," he wagged his finger in a 'tsk tsk' gesture. "I can't allow you to leave and return with reinforcements."

He took out three kunai and threw them at the genin but they were all deflected by Naruto who had reciprocated by throwing another three.

"Well, well, well. Someone just can't roll over and die, huh." The man smirked. "What's your name?"

The hooded boy only responded by slapping his chest and twisted his palm and muttered 'ichi' to himself. The man could not grasp the significance of that action but he grinned. "Alright. I killed your teacher so easily and you, a wet-behind- the-ears genin is going to stop me?"

Naruto spawned two katon clones and two futon clones. " **Collaboration technique: Futon: Daitoppa!** "

" **Katon: Gokakyu!"**

The five Narutos created a massive enhanced fireball that raced for the man. His eyes widened as the fireball caught him in a blazing inferno. The surrounding trees caught on fire but the fire died down as he cut off the chakra feeding the technique. All they could see were the smoldering remains of what appearing to be a pile of rocks, proving that the man used a substitution again. Naruto's clones dispersed and he created four raiton bunshins who all drew their tantos. While he wouldn't admit it, he was worried for himself, and his team. Even more so, the 'strongest' person on the team was lying down in a growing puddle of her own blood.

He looked around, searching for the enemy while Shino was spreading his insects all over in an effort to locate the man by his signature. Hinata turned on her byakugan and did a double take as she looked at her teacher's 'corpse'. Her countenance improved but she didn't say anything.

The man was suddenly among them and disposed of Naruto's clone first and suffered a severe electrical shock that made him grit his teeth in the pain. Naruto took advantage of his disorientation and slashed the man across his chest, only for him to collapse in a bunch of rocks that tumbled over himself, injuring his feet.

"Argh!"

The blond lost his balance and fell out of the tree onto his legs, hurting them more. The boy hissed in pain and created two clones who made an attempt heal him. But they were disposed of before they could start properly and the boy found himself with his elbows locked at his sides and a kunai at his throat, courtesy of the Iwa nin behind him. Before he could react properly, his throat was slashed in all of it's bloody waterfall glory.

His teammates gasped; Hinata began to shed tears.

Naruto looked as if he was gasping for breath but choked on his blood. His killer smirked but the smirk fell when Naruto gave a bloody grin.

"Boom."

'Naruto' exploded, releasing rock shrapnel that dug into the man, wounding him severely. But the man himself turned out to be another iwa bunshin. Naruto came back into existence next to his teammates who sighed in relief. The man suddenly dropped out of the treetops fifty yard away, a bloody mess and Kurenai dropped next to him. Naruto suddenly squinted his eyes in a glare and turned back to the woman's bloodied 'corpse'. She was still there, but the woman was in two places.

Naruto performed the genjutsu kai to reveal that it was only a log. But where the hell was she when they were fighting the whole time?

"Oi sensei! Where were you when we needed you? We could have been killed you know!" The boy was furious. His clone got it's throat cut for Kami's sake! That could have been him!

"I was fighting the man himself. All you were fighting were his clones. I had faith that you could fight him. After all, iwa bunshins are only known for durability, not might, skill or dexterity." She said calmly.

Naruto stopped. He knew that already from experience. "So you were fighting the actual battle when his clones could have cut all of our throats!"

Shino turned to Naruto who was seething. "Now that I think about it, her choice of action was the best course the battle could have taken, although you are a self proclaimed Ninjutsu brawler, all I am is a tracker and debilitator at best, and Hinata is in the same boat. Us genin would have been a dangerous liability."

The Uzumaki shook his head. "Shino, you're a rational thinker. Don't you realize what was truly going on? We were distractions. This guy, whoever he is, had to divide his attention between us and _Kurenai-sensei_ ," he practically spat out the last. "She did that just to stop this guy. Are we expendable?" 'Just as I getting comfortable on this team, she nearly gets us killed. Figures. You see Kurama? I need to create the The Tenacious Thirteen. I can't trust any of these people to watch my back.'

" **What the Aburame said made sense."**

"She could have made shadow clones to help us. The whole time I thought she kicked the bucket. Now, I don't think I care if she did in the future." He said out loud, both to his teammates and Kurama. Team eight was horrified.

"…"

"…"

"…"

The bloody man on the ground chuckled with a grimace, still in pain. "He's right you know." He spoke to the genin. "I had to keep sending clones to keep you occupied while I fought your teacher. I would have left you alone. I only did this because you would have been a real pest with doton techniques. And see? I was right." The man's eyes half lidded. "You're going to let me go."

Kurenai snarled. "Why on earth would I do that?! You're too dangerous to be left alive!"

"If I don't return to my dwelling place by nightfall, my chakra delay bomb tags will destroy the ceiling of the empty aquifer on which the town rests. If they explode, the ceiling will collapse…"

"Dropping the village into the aquifer, destroying it. Even though it's a small village, it will kill over three hundred people." Naruto finished. "If he really is using chakra delay bomb tags, then he has to put in chakra into it on a daily basis or they'll explode."

Kurenai read the man's features. She could find no trace of a lie being told. She didn't know which would be worse; being lied to or being told the ugly truth.

She deliberated with herself for another five minutes. All the pros and icons were level with each other. This man was an antagonist who attacked her team versus his claims of his owning the land. He could be a missing nin versus he might be on an extended mission. (His headband had no scratch.) He could be lying, but they had nothing to gain if he died or captured, and a lot to lose if he was telling the truth. She made her choice.

"We'll let him go."

Naruto hissed something to Shino who nodded.

'If Hinata had gotten killed, the man would have left here in a body bag; that much is certain. Either way, if this man lives in or close to the entrance of the aquifer, it could be an ideal place to create the 13T, Kurama.'

" **The '13T'?"**

"Yeah. It's getting troublesome to say the full name all the time. Besides, I was going to create a symbol of that anyway. Why am I quoting Shikamaru's favorite term," he muttered to himself.

In Konoha, a certain Nara was telling a certain Yamanaka that the old myth of sneezing when your name was mentioned by someone known to you wasn't true and how overused and over mentioned it was in the ninja world; so much so that it wasn't funny anymore.

" **Sounds interesting. The aquifer will serve as some sort of suppressing factor to make sure that no detects the usage of my chakra."**

'Mm hmm.'

The team watched as the man got to his feet and left in a body flicker. He must have been injured with only superficial physical damage to even get up at all but he left to lick his wounds nonetheless. Kurenai hoped she made the right decision.

 **Back in the village**

"Did you tag the man Shino?"

"Hai, Naruto-san. When we need to find him again, my kikaichu will simply locate the pheromones secreted by the queen on him."

"That's good news. Maybe _Kurenai-sensei_ would have forgotten that she still needed to keep the man under watch."

"I agree."

The two boys laid down in their beds and had a restless sleep, knowing that the man who they had met may really have bombs underneath the ground below them.

 **And that's it. Well, I really have to work on my ability to type fight scenes so, I'm going to binge watch a lot of anime fights. Since I'll be doing that, you'll get the chapter on the 29** **th** **of August. (Yes, of course I mean this present August.) but you'll be getting a one shot in the meantime, I promised one to a reader and if I don't do it soon, I may never will. I dropped a lot of clues in this chapter to what this arc will be about so if you think you're the world's greatest detective, look for 'em. Anyway, that's all folks.**

 **Sayonara.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Breaking Limits**

 **Well, here's chapter 16. I hope you enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own that show… with the… spiky haired whiskered young man… what was the… what was that name again? Umm…(Lawyer whispers in ear.) Oh yeah! (Clears throat.) I don't own Naruto! (Whispers in ear again) I own my ideas generated for this fan fiction! (Whispers even more discreetly) No, I can't let his ability upgrade again in so short a time!**

 **Uhh…Did I just say that out loud?**

 **16.**

The figure limped back to a hole in the woods, letting himself fall inside. He didn't even have the energy to properly climb down. He was only falling unto a soft pile of dirt, placed there for the purpose of cushioning landings. He landed on his back, sliding to the bottom of the little hill with a pained groan; the action was increasing the agitation of his injuries. The man rose to his feet and finished limping over to a little 'room' carved out of the solid rock inside the hole and took a seat, yelling for his brother further down the tunnel. He knew that the sound arrangement going down the tube-like tunnel would travel sufficiently enough for his brother to hear. Soon enough, his brother came to see what the urgent sounding call was about.

"Sato, what happened? Why were you calling? Did you remove the tracks that they evidenced to our doings?" Shita asked, sounding concerned. What the hell happened now?

Sato groaned in response.

Shita growled in irritation. It was as dark as the proverbial night in a mineshaft and he couldn't see his brother well. He could barely get by on the bare fact that he was channeling chakra to his eyes to see what he was doing, let alone see his face. Anymore chakra sent to his eyes and they just might explode from his skull.

"Speak man! What's wrong?!" He slapped him in the face with a medium amount of power. ( 1. Embarrass. 2. Chastise 3. Hurt - Medium is 2.)

Sato mumbled. "Alright, I'll tell ya," he slurred the last. "I took a painkillllerrrr on the way home. It's putting meee a little out ooof itttt." He drawled out the words, over pronouncing them. "I hhhhad toooo fight some ninja…"

Shita suddenly growled. "What kind of ninja?

"Jjjust… kuso, what time is it?"

"It's one in the morning."

"Wwhat?! Why would you nnnneed more than just friendly visits from a woman?"

"It's obvious that you're too far gone to have reasonable conversation with." Shita tightened his fists in preparation.

"W-wha…?"

Shita gave a rapid punch to his brother's chin, knocking his head back, making him pass into the bliss of unconsciousness. It would normally be difficult to knock someone out with a punch to the face rather than the back of the head but his brother was treading on the edge of consciousness. He only needed one more push.

He looked at Sato before sighing. He heaved him up and dropped him into a chair in a slouch. I'll get my answers in the morning, he figured. He then went back down deeper in the tunnel.

 **Seven hours later.**

Sato opened his eyes to see the branches of a tree above him, sunlight peeping through the branches. His hand instantly rose to his head, cradling it. It ached a little but he knew not why.

"Mornin'."

He looked to his right to see his brother fifteen yards off, roasting venison over a fire spit. He seemed… amused when he looked at him trying to handle his head tenderly.

"What happened? Why am I out here?"

"First off, I knocked you out last night. You were completely disoriented, no doubt by taking some high grade painkiller. That was a mercy to you, anyway." He smirked for a moment. "But you should be telling me what happened. You came back here with your body beaten in some places and a couple kunai stabs in others."

Sato suddenly recalled the fight. "Not what happened. **Who** happened."

His brother lifted an eyebrow. "Explain, man!"

He told his brother of the fight, omitting none of the details. He even detailed who he fought and their battle stats that he saw.

"…And that's all."

"Mmm hmm. Don't feel too bad that you lost. That woman is an elite jounin from Konoha. I heard talks of a genjutsu mistress who matches that description. 'Distinct red eyes that were **not** the sharingan.'" He quoted. "Even more so, she had a genin team to back her up."

"That didn't prove anything. I could have taken her on. I even used a lot of chakra in the ground so the insect using Aburame and Hyuuga girl couldn't find me. I'm an elite jounin too, you know."

"What about the hooded brat you talked about?"

"Him? I don't know how to describe him. He uses elemental bunshins that seem to pull more weight in fighting than him and he uses the **Bunshin Daibakuha.** Above all, a real pain in the ass."

"Would you recognize him without his hood on?"

"Nah. It shaded his face. All features, blank."

Shita groaned. "Well, you cleared all the dragged marks from those trees, didn't you?"

"Err… most of them. Where we fought was up to where I had leveled." Sato mumbled testily.

"Calm down, Sato, I'm not your boss. I'm your brother, partner, equals! You're not in trouble you know! I just want to know what's happened so far so we can plan on how to counter-act them. So far, we've got one elite jounin and three wet behind the ears brats, two of them sensors and the last one a heavy hitter who tries to hide his facial features. What else? Uh, they know that we probably have something do with the tree disappearances and earth shaking, seeing as you used predominantly doton techniques."

"I also used the capture failsafe."

"The one about the aquifer?"

"Hai."

Shita gave a resigned sigh. "That buys us another at least another thirty-six hours. We should be done by then anyway. We might have to set off a minor explosion to scare them a little in eighteen hours. They'll investigate that explosion, then the aquifer. While they do that, we'll get the hell out while the getting's good." He looked back at his brother. "Got that?"

"Got it." Sato stared at his lap.

"Hey Sato."

Sato looked up and back to the right again to answer his brother's call. The millisecond he did the action, a kunai instantly lodged itself in his heart, blood already seeping out of the wound and changing the brown of his animal skin clothes to a darker version.

Sato choked. "Gh… gh… what are you…d-doing?"

Shita just gave him a disinterested look. "Business. Just business."

"W-why…"

"You won't recover in time to fight them again, and if you get captured," he shrugged. "You know too much."

"I-I'm y…your b…brother…" his eyes started to lose focus, now seeing his surroundings in multiple.

"You die, no one knows, I get your share of the earnings, and you die for making so many mistakes in the past, even now."

Sato finally fell on his back, eyes glazing over.

Shita frowned. 'I was hoping to hear some kind of witty last words remark."

"F…uucck you… Shita." He crossed the bridge into the afterlife at last, but Shita smiled wrly as his eyes glinted with merry. 'There it is…never fails. Dying people always do that nonsense concerning last words and such…"

 **With Naruto, one hour later.**

"So what is it saying, Shino?"

"What is _she_ saying."

"Fine. What is _she_ saying?"

"Shhh."

Naruto jumped off the bed, giving up. What was he supposed to do when his teammate started talking to insects, anyway? "I'm going out for a walk, Shino."

"…"

Naruto shrugged. 'He heard me. Just still listening to it…her… whatever.'

He had already cared for his hygiene two hours before, as well as put on his ninja outfit. All he really had to do was draw on his sandals now. He did and was soon on his way outside. He wandered through the village, trying to get a good scope of his surroundings. After looking around to make sure he wasn't being watched by his teammates, i.e. Kurenai. The last thing he needed was for her to snoop in his business and ruining his goal. Seeing that the coast was clear, he finally sprinted to the border of the village until he came upon a deserted field. He looked around once more, before nodding to himself in satisfaction.

" **Iwa bunshin no jutsu!** "

He formed three Iwa bunshins that formed themselves out of bits and pieces of the hard ground. They stood erect and waited for orders. "Hai?"

Naruto squinted, not trusting himself to speak. You could never know who was watching. Especially a certain genjutsu user. 'I need you three to do something for me.'

'What is it?' they thought the reply in unison.

'I want you to use the **Chika hira** and scope out this supposed 'dried up aquifer' below the village. If it's there, tell me if you can find the explosive tags in there and in the meantime, find me a way where I can enter. Or if possible, make a stable opening where I could pass through. Just give a mental message,' Naruto tapped his temple once with an index finger. 'If you find anything of interest.'

All of the clones nodded while saying 'hai' mentally before performing the underground projection technique and sinking out of sight.

Naruto grinned while readying himself to do a shunshin. If all went well, he could just create the team on this mission and everything would go smoothly. He then ran back to the hotel and in a brief show of speed, appeared back at the doorway to enter his room. He knocked at the door to let Shino know someone was entering so he got fair warning. The last thing he wanted was for the boy to get spooked and chuck a kunai at his chest.

While he doubted that something like mental strain could happen to a guy like Shino, he believed that everything was possible. He knocked. "Hey Shino. Its me, Naruto. I'm coming in." he opened the door to find that the Aburame was done 'speaking' to his insect and was now seated on a chair, leaning his head back against the top of the chair. He wasn't wearing his usual ninja outfit with a high collar. Instead, it was a simple pair of knee length shorts and a t shirt. He wasn't even wearing his shades but his eyes were closed so he didn't get to see his eyes anyway. Subsequently, Naruto could see all of his face, including all of his facial expressions.

Shino was frowning.

"What happened? Bad news?"

The Aburame did not even look up to acknowledge. He only spoke to give his answer. "Indeed."

"How bad?"

"It confirms what the man said to us earlier. But we have even bigger problems. We will need to discuss it with Kurenai-sensei."

Naruto's eyebrows creased. "So the tags are there? What's worse than that?"

"You'll soon find out."

 **After Breakfast**

All of team eight was seated at a round table in a café, having now completed their meal. The table was cleared, now turning the spot into a place ideal for round table discussion.

 **AN - (Heh. See what I did there?)**

"Alright Shino. What was so important that you had to say?" Kurenai asked. She was curious as to why the Aburame was so keen on talking after breakfast. He seemed… excited or worried. She couldn't tell. It was the first time she had seen him show emotion anyway.

"It's terrible news. The man whom we fought yesterday has died."

"Isn't that good news? Now he can't threaten anyone again." Kurenai said, Hinata in agreement.

"NO, that's not good news!" Naruto replied, raising his voice in realization. "Have you forgotten how he threatened us?"

"N-no." Hinata interjected quietly.

"He said that he had to put in chakra into the explosive tags daily-"

"-or they'll explode." Kurenai interjected, now realizing what point they were trying to drive across.

"T-this is t-t-terrible." The Hyuuga paled. "W-what do we d-do?"

"Everyone, get a grip on your sanity." Shino said evenly. "I have not even mentioned how he came to die." They all tensed visibly when they heard that.

"Did he succumb to his wounds? I know for a fact that I did not give him any mortal injuries. All of the injuries he sustained were merely those that would debilitate him." Kurenai said. The woman was confused.

"According to an insect I planted on him, his brother killed him in cold blood."

"Why would he do that? Who is he?"

"My kikaichu told me that his brother's name was Shita. Apparently. They were looking for something of substantial value together in some sort of partnership. However, when he was injured, Shita must have thought that his brother was just a liability. Perhaps even to kill him while he was weak in order to get his share as well."

Naruto looked thoughtful. "Even so, did you find out what they were doing with all those trees? Or even the ground shaking? Obviously these people are connected with those events as well but I'm not seeing where all the happenings are connected."

"I-I t-think so as w-well."

"But what about the explosives?" Kurenai insisted.

"We have no need to worry about them now; not yet at least." Shino said without missing a beat.

"W-what?!"

"What?!"

The two females reacted as expected but Naruto remained silent. Shino probably wasn't done talking before they interrupted him. He knew he was a thinker, like Shikamaru.

"Apparently, we have around thirty four hours before they will be set off. The man's brother, Shita has decided that he will use the explosion as a distraction to get away in the chaos that will ensue. Sato was right that he the tags need chakra to remain dormant once every twenty four hours but when he is ready, he'll leave the tags alone, getting a twelve hour head start at close to the very least."

"That seems like the most logical plan for a crook," Naruto said plainly. "What is our next best course of action, Shino?"

"Why are you asking Shino? I'm the leader of this group with the superior rank, experience and know-how." Kurenai was indignant. 'He really is trying his best to wash his hands of me. He has to understand that I did what I had to so that we could come out on top. If I hadn't, we all would have died. I needed a distra…' the woman grew frightened in the privacy of her mind. 'A distraction? Is that what I really thought of them? Even Hinata? N-no. I only needed them to…to… occupy some of his attention! Dear Kami, Naruto was right! I nearly got them all killed because of my hatred for the Kyuubi.'

"Well Kurenai- _sensei_ , what do you recommend? I happen to know that your underground projection is no more than ten feet. Aquifers tend to be deeper than ten times that depth below ground."

"I… the first thing we should do is to send for reinforcements. The hokage can send someone with the doton expertise to find the aquifer and neutralize the explosives."

"Congratulations." Naruto sneered. "What a _fantastic_ idea. We need to find someone who has a really high affinity to doton techniques akin to some of the _elite_ shinobi who hail from Iwagakure. Second, who can hold their breath for that long to reach the aquifer, seeing that one has to hold their breath while under the ground and lastly, someone with explosive expertise to find and safely dispose of the tags because if we even miss one, the whole village will be a mass burial. I bet we can find a lot of people who qualify for that job."

Kurenai frowned. "You will show me the respect that my rank of command provides, _genin_."

"I'm sorry, did I say something degratory? I said nothing insulting and even called you by your title as sensei."

"Enough." Shino stopped them just short of leaping towards each other and fighting with blows. "Naruto, I do have a few ideas, but I also think that Kurenai-sensei's plan has some merit. While the odds of getting someone with all the requirements are slim at best, we still need some kind of backup to fight Shita. He was apparently stronger than his brother, seeing as how the conversation went with him Sato was scared of him. In the conversation, Sato said that he himself was an elite jounin. If he was scared of his brother…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

'If an elite jounin was afraid of someone else, how much stronger than Sato could Shita be? He can't be a kage; that would be foolish. Perhaps he was at mid Anbu level or something. Makes sense.' Naruto thought, looking up at the sky.

"Anyway. We get some fighting help, then what? We still need to consider those tags. We can't just leave them there and just pretend that they don't exist." He said.

"I'm thinking." Kurenai retorted.

They all sat and thought for three minutes before the blond snapped his fingers, making his teammates look up at him to listen to his suggestion.

"The trees!"

Yuhi frowned. "What about them?"

"The **chika hira no jutsu** is chakra intensive while you are underground in its usage. It's even more so when you are using the jutsu on yourself as well as anything or anyone you carry with you!"

"W-what are y-you saying, N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, unsure of the point he was trying to make.

"What I'm saying is that they couldn't have carried all those trees they wanted down there by using that jutsu. There must be another alternate and easier entrance."

Shino nodded. "That would prove viable in our efforts."

"Uh-huh. If we can find that entrance or tunnel or whatever it is, we could get to the aquifer, neutralize the bomb tags, stop Shita and call it a day."

"I doubt it." Kurenai said suddenly.

"Why not?"

"The fact that we encountered an elite jounin as well as someone who is supposedly stronger than **him** ; this mission is far higher than a simple C rank. It's now an A rank. We're going back home and notifying the hokage of the developing complications."

"But-"

"This is not up for argument, Uzumaki. Everyone, pack your things. We all leave in thirty minutes. The sooner we leave, the better. I'll go tell the mayor about what has happened."

Naruto snorted before getting up and performing a quick shunshin. His teammates, still not knowing the technique walked off together, leaving Kurenai to wonder if she was making the right decision. She soon reasoned to herself that she was before body flickering to the mayor's office.

 **With Kurenai**

Yuhi came out of the shunshin in front of the mayor's building in a swirl of leaves. She knocked on the door smartly, receiving a prompt response inside to enter. She complied and went inside to see a brunette woman in a simple kimono behind a desk who appeared to be writing what seemed to be a business letter.

'Must be a secretary.'

"I would like to see the mayor please."

The woman looked up. "Who shall I say is calling?" she said in a dull tone. Obviously, this job was boring the crap out of her.

"You can tell him Kurenai Yuhi of the ninja cell from the Leaf."

The secretary heaved herself up with a sigh and went through a small oak door on the right. Half a minute later, Kinkou came out.

"Hai Kurenai-san?"

Kurenai hesitated. No one liked to be the bearer of bad news, after all. "I have some bad news. The mission has complicated itself."

He frowned, letting his emotions seep to the surface to be easily noticed. "What kind of complications?"

"The whole village is in danger of being sunken into a supposed aquifer below it." She replied.

"Yes, we **had** an aquifer but it's now empty. But how is the town in danger of falling into it? The support for the landscape was deemed stable after it dried up." The mayor defended.

"Yesterday, we encountered a ninja who claimed that he had explosives strategically set up in it to destroy the town if he was caught or captured. The explosives he used had to be 'monitored' daily or they would detonate."

The mayor paled. "How do you know that he was telling the truth?"

"I have a talent to tell when people are lying. This man did not lie." Kurenai responded.

"So if you let him go, what's the problem?"

"He was killed."

"Then that means…" Kinkou trailed off.

"Yes. But you misunderstand. There is another person involved."

"Please explain."

Kurenai explained the whole situation to him in an effort to bring him up to speed. After it all, the man was really tense.

And who could blame him?

"While it is still bad news, it is a bit better knowing that we have more time to prepare. A little over thirty hours you say?"

"Hai. He could even set it off too early if he had a mind to." She reaffirmed.

"Dear Kami. Excuse me, I must go. I have to make some announcements. In the meantime, it would be most prudent if you could get some extra help from the Hidden Leaf to assist us. Even if we have to evacuate, it would be even better that the threat was removed before the danger becomes realized."

"Hai, Kinkou-sama."

'This is just great. I get to be mayor just last year and my town gets destroyed. How is this going to make me look?' "Feh, politics."

Kurenai hurriedly penned a message with all the important details and sent it off on a messenger hawk to the Hokage. That way, he had more time to handpick the suitable people for this task while team eight left. She prayed to Kami that the town would turn out alright.

 **Fifteen minutes later.**

Team eight dashed through the trees towards Konoha. They didn't have to; they just did it for the sake of the action. They were silent, each in their own thoughts. Along the whole way, Kurenai wondered if she was doing the right thing by pulling her team away from the mission. She had picked the reasonable decision, but not the idealistic and moral one. Back at the inn, Naruto had come back a little later than she herself, complaining that she was making a mistake. He kept telling her that she was forgetting something important and it would cost the town dearly. When she asked him to tell her, he refused to tell her, saying that she would learn a lesson better that way. After badgering him the third time, she gave up and he clammed up, not talking to anyone. Even Shino said a word or two **more** than him.

Now travelling back to Konoha, she could not help but feel that she really did forget something important. The feeling did nothing but annoy her and trouble her, and she tried her best to assure herself that it was just nerves. When that didn't work, she tried to tell herself that he was just trying to play a mind game on her as revenge but she just couldn't lie to herself. Resigning to herself that he may be right, she tried to wrack her brain, trying to figure out what it was that she forgot.

But she could not.

"Naruto, what am I forgetting?" she pleaded. This was like groveling to her and she loathed the idea. But it was a necessary evil.

One that failed.

He gave her a mere sideways glance and then concentrated back to tree branches in front of him, silent.

"Ugh." Frustration was taking over.

"Hinata, Shino. Do you know what he is talking about?"

"No, Kurenai-sensei."

"N-no, Kurenai-sensei."

Well, that was it. She apparently 'forgot' something exceedingly important, two of her students didn't know what the problem was. The guy who knew it refused to tell her what it was.

"I'm sorry for whatever wrong I did to you Naruto. Will you please tell me what it was?"

All three of the genin heads swung around sharply, almost giving them whiplash.

"What are you sorry for?"

"I…"

"The fact that you don't know or refuse to say shows that you aren't." Naruto wore a stern expression. "Even if I had accepted your half baked apology, I still wouldn't have told you."

The temperature of the air grew cold in response to the situation.

"Let us be on our way." The whiskered boy resumed his focus to ninja tree jumping.

 **In Konoha, Hokage's Office**

Hiruzen Sarutobi carefully observed the three ninja in front of him. It was a classic case of 'send your best but this is all I've got' scenario. There was (and probably will be) a village over a sinkhole about to become one with it. And this was all he could send. They were among the best in their respective fields, but their combat experience and status was woefully inadequate.

His eyes passed over Iruka Umino, a chunin academy teacher who had the highest doton affinity in the village, Ko Hyuuga, a cadet branch guardian who had an excellent byakugan, and Taem Daed, A chunin bomb maker who was short two fingers and was half deaf in one ear.

"So you all understand?"

"Hai hokage-sama." They declared.

"You may leave." He dismissed them and they all left in a shunshin to prepare for the upcoming mission. The aged Sarutobi allowed himself to sag backwards in his chair in an effort to calm his nerves.

'The first time I send them out of the village, they just had to wander into an A ranked, if not S ranked danger. They'll get there in time. I'm just hoping that they'll be successful."

He smoked his pipe, thinking.

"I feel like I'm forgetting something."

The door was pushed in by his secretary bringing more paperwork to him. The Sandaime groaned. At least it took his mind off things.

Little did he know that it would prove to be the reinforcement team's misfortune.

 **(A/N- Do you know what they're forgetting?)**

 **With Naruto**

The blond and his team reached the gate in an even lesser time in which they had left the Hidden Leaf in the first place. He was now emotionless, hard to read. He also ignoring everyone on his team, save for Kotetsu and Izumo, the two chunin at the gate. He gave them his I.D. to check for a brief moment before noticing Iruka Umino and his team walking up to the gate."

"Naruto? Is that you?"

"Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka was wearing a small pack, as did the two people who flanked him at his sides. Naruto noticed that there was a Hyuuga among them as well as a rowdy looking man who seemed to pure hate at the blonde. Said blond frowned when he saw him.

"What is the dem-…" the man frowned, seeing that he was in public in the presence of an elite jounin and two clan heirs.

"Yes?" Naruto asked expectantly.

"N-never mind." The man gave up. He didn't want to continue on that demon 'description, lest he gets killed by said ninja, or get carried off to Torture and Interrogations for a bit of 'reconditioning'.

"If that's all, then," Naruto turned to his former teacher. "Hey Iruka-sensei. Where are you going?"

"I'm going to Kimyō town. You know, where you were just leaving." Iruka smirked a little. "Someone's gotta clean up your mess, am I right Naruto?"

Naruto groaned. "'Why are you going' was what I meant to ask."

"I'm going to be doing the 'dirty work.'" The scar faced chunin replied, patting the blond's head, much to his chagrin. "Didn't you know that I've got a high doton affinity?"

"No."

"If you'll excuse me, but we need to leave. The sooner, the better." Ko interjected, glaring at Naruto.

"So be it. Don't let me, a mere genin stand in your way of your assigned duty," He responded with a glare of his own. It was obvious that he remembered Ko from his earlier years when he had saved Hinata from bullies and Ko had jyuukened him by mistake and was not repentant. He helps someone, gets mistakenly punished, no one gives a damn.

That was just another Tuesday in the life of Naruto Uzumaki.

This was now an interesting development for Naruto. He knew all the possible complications and the path this mission was likely to run on. That lead him to the incredibly hard decision.

Help them, or they would die.

Iruka was the only one out of the three of them who he could have rapport with. Naruto gave him a seventy five percent overall. Then there was Ko, at twenty five percent. He didn't necessarily hate Naruto, he just felt he would have been a bad influence on Hinata at the time. He also thought he was below him, not he himself, below the Hyuuga clan. Then there was Taem. He was at zero percent, for being a complete bastard to Naruto. So out of three hundred percent, they had only one hundred percent for possible redemption, a basic 33%.

He beckoned to Iruka. "Iruka-sensei, one more minute of your time. _In private_."

Umino raised an eyebrow. As promised, they spoke for another exact moment in a corner before they emerged back to the public, Iruka thoroughly confused. This made everyone suspicious as to what they were talking about but Iruka wouldn't say anything to his peers, likewise Naruto to his.

"Alright Team. Lets go."

The three chunin ninja sprinted out the gates, leaving team eight.

"Later." Naruto shunshinned home while the last two genin walked home, leaving Kurenai to make her oral report to the hokage. This whole situation was bothering her. She could only assume that it would not hurt if she knew the details of any good news.

Boy, was she wrong.

She found out that Kimyō town was in a panic to evacuate. Some were arguing about their prefabricated dwellings and moving it entirely. The Mayor was also being threatened with death threats; being blamed with incompetence.

Quite unexpected with such a small town. Even worse, there was no law.

 **With Naruto**

The blond went home quickly and slammed the door in frustration. Much to his surprise, it slammed and stayed there. He blinked. 'The door's fixed?'

A small note was taped on the door. (On the inside of the apartment) It looked official, but he tore off the tape and read it regardless. It was to-the-point.

 _The door was replaced due to the cause and effect of Hinata Hyuuga breaking it down. I believe it would be judicious if this incident were to never repeat itself._

 _Hyuuga Hiashi,_

 _Clan Head._

He crumpled the paper and dropped it into the wastebasket. "Thanks. But it took you long enough. It's been over a month. Were they waiting for me to leave the village to make the replacement less awkward or something?" the boy muttered.

He lay down on the bed, closed his eyes and entered the mindscape. He reopened them a second later to find himself lying down on a grassy plain under the large tree where Kurama whiled away his time.

" **Took** _ **you**_ **long enough. What were you doing?** " The kitsune greeted.

"The usual. Warning people, trying to help someone else. Just another day."

" **Meh, whatever. Everyone else is here already. They're over there waiting for your report and recommendations and such.** "

He sat up and looked to where the Kyuubi pointed. He could see what looked like four others like him seated in lotus position in the shade. They were yet to move or speak. They were obviously waiting on him. He ambled over to them and seated likewise to them.

"Well. Here I am. Let's get this meeting started." Naruto said.

"I'm the one calling the shots here." One of them said, standing up. "I'm Naruto, you're the shadow clone and those are the rock clones."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." The kage bunshin said, rolling his eyes. "Sometimes I act like such a prick."

"Hey!" everyone shouted in reply.

" **Keep the noise down brat! Kami! You're the only person I know who insults and argues with himself. What are you, mental?!"** The Demon fox roared.

The original Naruto (standing) sighed in frustration. "Alright. Temporarily, we are all equals." He said to all of them. The doppelgangers faces lit up. "But I still need to keep the order in this meeting, so I still have a little authority." They all deflated a little..

"I should have expected that from myself," an Iwa bunshin remarked.

"All right, all right. That's enough. What do you have to bring to the table kage Naruto?"

The recently arrived clone snorted a little. "It's working fine. They all think I'm you, obviously. That's cause I am, in a way. I spoke like you, warned Yuhi and all that. They also all think I'm pissed. It's all proceeding smoothly."

"Excellent. By the way, how did you warn her? Were you sure to be vague?"

"Hai. But we have a new complication."

"What is it?"

"It's Iruka-sensei. He's gone to Kimyō town. Apparently, they picked him out because he had a really high doton affinity." The kage bunshin said in reply.

"Oh! Oh…" Naruto was dejected. Iruka was way in over his head. There was a high chance he was going to die.

"Who else?" Naruto asked.

"They're sending Ko-"

"Hinata's old bodyguard?!" Naruto exclaimed the question.

"Mm hmm. Good memory." The bunshin said in a bored and sarcastic tone.

The Uzumaki chose to ignore that. "Who else. They're sending what seems to be an explosive expert, judging from all the damage that was done on him. I believe his name is Taem Daed, if I'm not mistaken."

"You mean the asshole who nearly blew me up on purpose four years ago but he got away because of a lack of evidence?" Naruto growled.

"Hai."

Naruto closed his eyes. "Iruka, Ko, Daed. I'll help Iruka. Leave Daed to die. And Ko…" he reopened them. "Kage bunshin will go ask Hinata how she feels about Ko. If I can get a good response, I'll help him. But if I even get a mediocre one…" he trailed off. All the clones got the idea of what he meant. "Anyway, Iwa bunshins. What do you have?"

The one in the middle spoke up. "I have found the entry way they probably used. I was able to find this because of the scent of blood in the air. It was Sato, murdered as per Shino reconnaissance information. There was an entrance to a tunnel close by to the site. It appears stable. However, there were two tunnels leading away from a fork in the entrance."

"Oh?" Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Go on."

"The one on the left seems to head in a diagonal angled course to the aquifer. But the one on the right drops down suddenly about fifteen feet from the fork, like a well. If I guess correctly, I would say it goes even deeper than the aquifer. I believe that this goes whole deal was really more than just threatening a town, like what Shino said. There's something valuable down there. Remember Shita's double cross?"

"We can work with this. Anyone else have anything to say?"

This time the one on the right spoke up. "I found the tags. There were a lot of man made cracks in the ceiling of the aquifer and the tags just inside them. I couldn't get too close, lest I set them off. There were two dozen of them, all A ranked tags all around the ceiling of the cavern. It would be more than enough. The aquifer is around three hundred feet from top to bottom. Some stalactites and stalagmites have connected to each other so I just walked up one for about halfway and counted one hundred in feet. This situation is more than likely going to become destructive."

Naruto frowned. "Kami, this has all gone to shit. Even worse, the tags are attuned to Shita's and Sato's chakra. If anyone else handles them, they'll blow up. That's the main issue that everyone's forgetting is not only the threat Shita poses, but the tags themselves. The only way the explosives will be negated is if Shita removes them himself and leaves. And we all know he doesn't want that. On top of that, three mediocre chunin, especially Iruka who's gone soft while teaching can't take on a guy an elite jounin was scared of. We've got to think of a way to stop this!"

"It's not only that. The town is in chaos. Everyone's in a state of panic." The third bunshin said.

"From this info, they've got a right to be." The shadow clone muttered.

"Either way," Naruto spoke firmly. "I'll soon be caught. Might as well be caught doing the right thing. I'll worry about the ramifications after. By the way did you say anything to Iruka?"

Kage bunshin smirked. "Hai."

 **With Iruka**

They were almost at Kimyō town. They were silent for the entire journey. They had psyched themselves up for such an important mission, but that left them to stew in their own senses of premonition. Each of them felt it, but none of them knew that the others were feeling it too. They kept it to themselves.

'What did he mean?' the scarred chunin wondered. 'It makes no sense. 'When you find me, I will help you'?' He leapt from the closest branch and took off again. 'This kind of potential catastrophe hasn't occurred since the third great shinobi war when my parents told me those horrifying stories of brutality. We have to make haste. The sooner we arrive, the better.'

 **With Kage bunshin & Hinata**

"Hey Hinata. Hope I wasn't disturbing anything."

"Y-you weren't d-disturbing anything, Naruto-kun."

The two young ninja had met at a park, per Naruto's suggestion when he had seen her. Fortunately, he had found her in down section of Konoha, exiting a bakery. That was really lucky because he was on his way to the compound to find her. Reasons being that his search was shortened and even if he had made it to the compound, she would not have been there. The next one was that he probably would have had to sneak into the compound, seeing that the 'likes of him' probably wouldn't have had a chance to even look at the gate properly.

The girl was ecstatic inwardly and she was nerve wracking close to fainting. In her mind, this was almost ( **ALMOST** ) like a date. The poor infatuated girl was blushing at the implications but was able to dial back the blood rushing into her face by several pep talks in her mind as well as telling herself that it was just a chat.

"Well, it's about the mission." He started. He noticed the girl's blush but did not know what to make of it. If she wanted to, she would tell him of her condition, whatever it was, in good time.

If only he knew.

"W-what about it?"

"It's has a very, very, really slim chance of being pulled off successfully."

"How s-so?"

He really didn't want to tell her. She didn't need to know all the details, so he tried to be vague. "Only the man who's causing the problem can fix it."

The Hyuuga heiress paled. (Ha! Perfect fix for blushing. Just get frightened.) She recalled seeing her former body guard and her academy teacher along with someone else that were sent to stop it.

"Judging by your reaction, I can see that you understand what I'm getting at. I know how we feel about Iruka-sensei, but I wanted to know about Ko's byakugan."

She looked up, shocked. "To w-what end?"

"You mentioned that when the byakugan was at it most developed state, you could see for thirty meters below the ground, correct?"

"H-hai."

"That's not going to be very helpful," he said lowly, but the girl still caught it.

"Why is t-that?"

"Shita seems to have a high mastery of the **Chika Hira no jutsu** , going below the earth. If he was anything like Sato, then he's going to kill them."

She gasped. "But Ko's daughter just turned three years old."

Naruto grinned inwardly. 'There it is. She leaked information… wait what?! A three year old daughter?!' "A daughter? Say, isn't this the same Ko who used the gentle fist on me when I was younger and defended you?"

She grew embarrassed. "Err, hai. I apologize for his b-behavior."

He tried harder still, trying to get more information about his character from her. "So you're saying he doesn't normally behave that rashly?"

"N-no. he is very k-kind. It's just that sometimes he behaves proudly ever since his promotion. He got promoted to an important p-position in the Hyuuga, even as a cadet b-branch member, just t-two days before we m-met the first t-time all t-those y-years ago."

"Ok then." 'Hey Kyuubi, I need a mental link to the boss.'

" **What am I, an operator?"**

'Just do it.'

" **Fine… talk."**

'Yo, boss.'

'Yeah. Hinata says that Ko is an all-around ok person. He only became a little proud when he rose to a level of some authority in their clan. She even says he's kind and has a three year old daughter.'

'Is that so?'

'Hai. Might have to save him, you know.'

'Yeah, yeah. Just keep talking to her though, don't want it to seem that I only wanted to talk about him.'

'That's alright. She is kinda cute though… did that just come from me?'

" **Yes. It did."** The Kyuubi smirked. It was he who brought the notion that he thought she was cute to the forefront. Naruto thought that the whole time; he just never admitted it, not even to himself.

'Just get on with it! I've got shit to do over here!' Naruto (original) said. He then severed the connection.

The doppelganger cut the connection as well. "Anyway Hinata, we can just hope and pray to Kami for their safe arrival back home and that they complete the mission successfully. In the meantime, what kind of baked goods do you have there?"

"Cinnamon rolls."

"Ooh. Can I have one?" He reached for one, only for her to slap his hand away, to his and even her own astonishment.

"I-I-I…" she stuttered.

Naruto blushed. "I-I didn't know you were so possessive of your rolls, Hinata. May I try one please?" his countenance softened a little as he almost begged. "I'll even make it up to you by taking you out for some ramen! Wadd'ya say?"

"Yes!" She blurted out the answer without thinking. As soon as he mind caught up with what she said, it went into overdrive.

'I just said yes. YES TO WHAT?! A DATE?!'

She promptly fainted.

Naruto sweat dropped. 'Weird.'

He created another clone who picked up her rolls while he picked her up, bridal style. "If I bring her to her home like this, her clan will kill me. If I drop her off at the hospital, the doctors and the clan will kill me. Kurenai's the same story. I'll just bring her to my home then." He failed to realize that he was just a clone but in a sense, if he was dispersed, he was being killed. That was stil a no-go.

"So what," The newly created clone asked. "Shunshin?"

"Shunshin," he replied and nodded. He looked back at the unconscious girl in his arms. 'She really is cute, even when she's like this. But why the heck's that smile on her face is for?' "Get ready," he spoke in a tone that indicated an order. The two clones body flickered home.

 **With the Original Naruto, Kimyō Town.**

Said Uzumaki ninja-sprinted to an open field and created five hundred bunshins who just stood around waiting for the original to speak.

"HEY! LISTEN UP!" he shouted, getting their attention. "I NEED YOU ALL TO BRAINSTORM IDEAS ON HOW TO STOP THE BOMBS OR STABILIZE THE AQUIFER IF THEY DO EXPLODE! GOT IT?!"

"HAI!" Their shouted reply was far louder than his, being multiplied by five hundred.

"WHEN YOU THNK YOU HAVE A GREAT IDEA, JUST DISPEL YOURSELVES!"

"HAI!"

Naruto nodded and bounded away to find the area for him to think as well. He needed to decide what his next action would be. Suddenly he gained two ideas about the aquifer, no doubt from dispersing clones.

'Yeah, flooding the aquifer to stabilize it make sense, but I would die of chakra exhaustion before it reached halfway full, even if I was the one performing the jutsu with Kurama's chakra. Too many complications with mizu bunshins. Lets see what's the next one? Filling the cavern to the brim with rocks from doton techniques? I don't know any techniques that would create the filler necessary. Even if I transferred the earth filler from somewhere, I probably would be destabilizing somewhere else. Kurama, ideas?'

" **Evacuate the town and tell them to rebuild their crappy town somewhere else**."

"We can't just give up. In the meantime, we'll just help 'evac' the town. One of the Iwa bunshins described it as bedlam."

Bedlam was right.

Although the town was small, everyone was crowding over each other, lugging all their prized possessions and getting in each other's way. Even more so, they still weren't too sure if the danger would prove to happen or not so the people were torn between dropping off nearby or go the extra distance and make their way to the Hidden Leaf village. Naruto set his face and created one hundred kage bunshins who would each help a family move, seeing as some were infirm or had a lack of help in moving. He couldn't make anymore bunshins than that though. He was already pushing it by making that many when people thought that the place was too crowded when everyone was outside at the same time. (More or less.) He himself went to see the mayor.

The leader of the village had lost his cool demeanor and was sweating buckets at the political pressure the people were putting on him. They were about to let him know what they thought of him physically when Naruto arrived in between him and them in a shunshin. His hood was up and over his head, giving him an intimidating appearance.

"You should be evacuating the village, not arguing with someone who wasn't responsible." He said evenly.

The crowd fell silent. However, a wise guy at the back made his voice heard. "He's just one runt. He can't stop us!"

Naruto made the cross ram seal and created eleven clones. Upon existing, they all unsheathed their tactical batons and swiped it down, releasing it catch.

If he looked intimidating before, he looked positively threatening now.

They crowd scattered, trickling away as if they were trying to be discreet with their departure. The Uzumaki didn't really care so he turned around when he heard Kinkou clear his throat.

"Young man, Arigatou. I don't want to sound ungrateful for the help but I thought you returned back to Konoha with the rest of your team."

"That's what I want to know too."

Naruto's head span around so fast when he heard that voice that it was a wonder he didn't get whiplash. He was surprised that the persons had arrived so quickly. He didn't really care if and when they found him or not. It was bound to happen eventually. He just accepted the fact.

"Hello Iruka-sensei. You got here quickly."

"Don't tell me that! I left you in Konoha! What are you doing here?!"

"I'm doing my job."

"What job?! You were told to pull out from this mission because it was beyond your level. That's why **we** got it!" Iruka yelled in exasperation, pointing his hands at himself and his squad mates. Taem smirked to himself when he heard that. He must have really thought high of himself.

 **AN - (I chuckled at the hidden joke. I'll tell you later what it was. :D)**

"Iruka-sensei, you're being a fool. It seems that I am the only one who realizes the harsh truth."

"What harsh truth?"

"I don't like your earlier tone so I'll let you sweat a bit first when you realize, and then I'll help you."

"If that's so then you're wasting my time, Naruto. In any case, you'll just have to stay with the mayor. We can't spare anyone of this squad to escort you back now, you'll be properly punished when we return home." Iruka sighed. "Naruto, just do as I say."

The whiskered boy stroked his chin. "No. I don't think I will. I'm already in trouble for not going home as it is. I suppose one count of insubordination is fine. Two is okay too."

Ko's eyebrows furrowed. "Perhaps we should just knock him out so he will stay put. He needs to learn to respect and listen to his betters." Taem agreed with the suggestion.

"No. That would be foolish. You all have work to do out there. If all of you are working in the field, who will stay with the mayor? Judging by your tardy entry the crowd would have started beating on him before you arrived."

"He's right." Ko said.

But Iruka smirked. He just found a way for the blond to stay put. "If that's so Naruto, why don't you protect Kinkou-sama?" He tried to play on the boy's ideals.

The trap failed its purpose.

Another Naruto suddenly appeared beside the one Iruka just spoke to.

"You heard that, Kage bunshin? You're staying." The **original** Naruto flooded the bunshin that Iruka was talking to with chakra to make it long-lasting and shunshinned off again before Iruka could say anything.

He had lost his ability of speech anyway. Naruto had outsmarted him, knowing he would try to make him stay. When all of this was over, by technicalities, Naruto had listened to everyone, no cases of insubordination because he 'did as he was told.' The clones that is.

Technicalities make punishments complicated.

The kage bunshin shrugged his shoulders and dispelled his clones. "Shall we, Kinkou-sama?" he said pointedly.

The mayor dumbly nodded and went inside his building, closely followed by the bunshin who closed the door behind him.

Umino shook his head with a sigh. 'That's Naruto. He's now so clever it's scary.' "Ko, Taem. Let's go find the tags." They nodded in response and started to sprint to the edges of the town. They stopped right at the beginning of grassy plain before looking down.

"Ko."

He looked up. "Hai, Iruka-san?"

"I'm going to use the underground projection technique. Can you spot the explosive tags?"

"Hai." He channeled chakra into his eyes, activating his dojutsu. "Byakugan!" he was instantly granted with 360 degree telescopic sight. (Almost 360 anyway.) he stared down into the earth. Right at the edges of his vision, he could see the tags. (Remember that at its peak, the byakugan can see 30 meters below the ground. That's also 100 feet if I'm not mistaken.) His stoic demeanor fell when he saw the tags, all A grade by going by what the Kanji said. A rapid count of the tags brought the number to twenty four tags.

Iruka noticed the look. "What's wrong?"

"I see them. Two dozen, all around below. They're strategically placed in what appears to be man made fault lines to increase the damage that can be done."

The scar faced chunin adopted a grim expression. "So I can remove them?"

"Hai. I will mark the land above the tags are. All you will have to do then is to descend straight down and retrieve them."

"Seems sound. And when I retrieve them, Taem can neutralize them and that's it."

"Indeed."

Ko walked around carefully. Every once in a while, he would mark an 'X' with his Jyuuken, making the mark by using chakra and burning it into the grass. Soon, there were about two dozen of the 'X's around the area.

"That's all of them."

"Alright."

Iruka created the ram seal and started to pull on his chakra reserves to the surface for it to be used. (It is like a well. You get the water and use it really easy when the water's almost at the top, contrary to when it almost at the bottom. Jutsus by the same definition are bit harder to use when you have to 'dip really deep' to get the chakra)

He was pulling on it when Ko made a remark.

"That's unusual."

Iruka was concentrating so he did not answer. Taem did it instead.

"What is?"

Ko stared into the ground. "It's a bit of a slight change. There is chakra running through it."

"All tags have chakra in their sealing matrices. That's the catalyst that makes them explode."

"You fail to understand. I know that. It's just that the level of chakra-"

"Has increased?" Daed interjected. If it did, then they were about to explode.

"No. it has decreased a little." He deactivated his dojutsu. It was starting to eat away his chakra reserves by keeping it on.

"Decreased?" Taem looked puzzled. "That's strange. What kind of tags do that?" 'Decreasing chakra. Sheesh. I must be getting really rusty if I can't remember the fact about that."

" **Doton: Chika-** " Iruka started.

Taem suddenly remembered. "Wait Iruka!" he yelled in a panicked voice.

"- **Hira** … what?" Umino stopped his upcoming technique just seconds before completing it. "What is it, Taem?"

"We can't touch the tags." He said dejectedly.

"Why not?"

Taem was suddenly impaled by a rock spear from underneath the ground. It rose up from the ground diagonally from behind him, starting at his lower back, exiting his neck. It reentered his chin and exited again through his fore head, pushing off his hitai ate. The rock spear was manipulated by chakra again, creating rock branches of itself while he was still impaled, practically ripping him apart from the inside. His blood splashed on his comrades who were horrified at the scene.

( **TAEM DAED=DEAD MEAT** in a couple of seconds.) [Hey, not to be callous at killing a guy like this but I was laughing the whole time trying to get serious when I created his name. I mean, come on! You all could see what his name was, right?]

"Because the tags are attuned to my chakra. If it recognizes another person's chakra besides my own, they'll explode." A voice said.

Ko activated his byakugan and Iruka assumed a taijutsu stance with a kunai, eyeing the man who rose from the ground slowly while standing.

"Who are you!" Iruka shouted.

"I am Shita. I am the man who decides the fate of the whole town, the man who killed his own brother for money. But most importantly." Shita grabbed the earth in a handful but when he took it up back it was a rock version of an elongated kunai. "But most importantly," he repeated and assumed a stance. "I am your executioner."

 **And that's it. Felt like a good place to end. The fights coming next time and you can be sure that I will be doing my best to make it good. (I'm still watching anime fights and old kung fu movies. Why do so many of them come from Canada and not China or Japan?) After all, the arc will finish next chapter. Also, for those who need a hint as to what the whole arc is about, go to chapter 15 and use this hint. (It's all in the names.) Been trying to give this arc a mysterious feel so let me know what you think! That's all folks.**

 **Sayonara.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Breaking Limits**

 **Well, I'm sitting in an un-airconditioned room in the melting pot known as Kingston; smack down in the middle of sizzling Jamaica in the summer (We don't have autumn and winter. It's practically summer all year round). And all this global warming… I mean global BURNING is not making things any easier. So yeah, I'm not in the best of conditions to write.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I never have, never will and I don't want it or aspire to have it. (Wipes away sweat with a soaked towel) Hot damn!**

 **17.**

The boy sat on a rock with his back to the hole's entrance. He was bored while he waited, knowing that he had nothing to keep himself occupied. Even if he did have the means, he was forbidden to. He needed to be there when he met his maker.

Finally, a swirl of leaves came into being about ten yards in front of him. He sighed in relief knowing that his wait was at an end. Coming out of the shunshin was none other than Naruto Uzumaki.

The clone stood up and dusted his bottom then stretched. "Took you long enough!" he yawned.

"Yeah, yeah. Now where is this tunnel entrance you've been going on about?"

The clone regained his composure and pointed. "It's over there." His index finger pointed in the direction of a half closed lid in the ground, cleverly painted in such a way to resemble a large rock, even though the lid itself was fairly light. It felt bizarre to have something look as if it weighed at least twenty five pounds but instead it weighed no more than five.

Naruto lifted the lid only to find… a pile of half rotting leaves.

He sweat dropped and looked back to the clone. "Seriously?"

The Iwa bunshin rolled his eyes and grabbed Naruto's shoulder. He sent some chakra into it that induced a change to his present chakra circulation. Almost immediately, the image of the leaves wavered like water ripples before disappearing.

Naruto groaned. "Ugh. This is why Genjutsu is my worst area."

The clone smirked. "This is why most types of genjutsu don't really work on us. We clones have a different kind of chakra circulation that most types of genjutsu can't affect."

'Smart-ass clone.'

'Dumb-ass creator.'

The Kyuubi face palmed in the mindscape. " **Why don't you focus on the task at hand, huh? We need to know where that other tunnel goes.** "

'Hai, Hai. We're going.' Naruto jumped into the hole first, making sure his knees were slowly bent. He still didn't know the distance to reach the ground. It was a little bit farther than expected but he was alright. For the clone, it was a bit more jarring considering its increased weight. Fortunately, it wasn't too bad and it wasn't dispelled.

"Kuso, I can't see. Oi, boss. Create a katon bunshin or a raiton one or something." The Iwa bunshin said as it felt around blindly.

"Calm down. **Katon bunshin no jutsu!** "

Without delay, a spark flared and a clone was formed.

"Hey, got a light?" Naruto joked.

The two bunshin groaned at the lame joke. Naruto didn't mind though; the groans meant that they understood it. And how could they not? They were copies of him after all.

The fire clone committed to it's purpose and created a D rank fire jutsu in the palm of it's hand. Slowly, the fire crept over all of it, stopping just at the wrist. The clone then raised his hand like a torch.

The other two sighed from the respite of the darkness. "Honestly, 'Iwa', how did you manage to find your way around here in the first place?" Naruto asked.

The clone scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "I used a stick to tap around."

Naruto sweat dropped. "You mean like someone who is bli- I mean visually disabled?"

"Uh-huh."

Naruto sighed again. "Let's get going. Both of you lead the way."

The clones started walking with Naruto close at their heels. Along the way, the light of the clone's jutsu revealed the assorted essentials and luxuries normally found in the average home. He saw chairs, a table, and a safe that he would probably have food in them. There were even a couple of expensive looking futons.

"It's obvious that they were living here." Iwa bunshin pointed out.

"Yeah. But let's stay focused. You never know if Shita could be around." The katon clone said.

"You make it sound as if we're hunting him."

"We're not." Naruto butted in. "We're investigating the second tunnel. Something tells me that whatever they would go so far to protect is in there. I mean, look at all that's happening. They would threaten the whole town just for something with a substantial gain."

The two clones grunted in agreement. They kept walking along the tunnel. Every now and again, they would see a subterranean creature like moles and badgers that had their own complex network of home tunnels that involved crossing the floor of the tunnel Naruto walked. It was a bit of a healthy distraction for the boy; his nerves were somewhat on edge for he knew this was probably high up on the list of places he shouldn't be in.

Suddenly, the clones stopped. Unfortunately, Naruto walked into the clone in front of him. His eyes were wandering a bit so he accidentally walked into the Iwa clones back. Both being on the same height, his nose met the rock clone's skull.

"Agh!" he grunted in pain. "Why did'ya stop?!" His speech bore some resemblance to a squeal because of the temporary nose impairment.

"We can't walk anymore."

Naruto rubbed his nose to get back his mastery of speech. "And why not?" He looked around them to see what was wrong.

That he did.

He fell flat on his stomach and crawled to the edge before looking down. And all he could see, was nothing, engulfed by a pit of never-ending black,

 **With Iruka & Ko**

The two chunin faced the roughly dressed man who antagonized them. They were barely thirty yards away from each other, each studying each other closely. One not as much as the other two, though. Shita was by no means over confident just because he was facing two chunin. After all, look what such confidence had gotten his twin brother when he faced off a woman of a lesser caliber. Even though the scar-faced chunin looked as if he shaking in nervousness. Or was it fear? He didn't know. It could have been fear, having used such a brutal kill on purpose to make them disheveled. Even tried to intimidate them with a crappy 'executioner' line. After all, he needed these men as some collateral. Maybe even just one would suffice. Perhaps they would even surrender. He would be on the run from the leaf and they would be delayed in their actions. Perhaps he should take the Hyuuga.

Iruka slightly trembled. He wasn't a seasoned shinobi. He grew up in peaceful times, earned his promotion easily without bloodshed. He didn't really try to develop his skills. He was only talented in doton. So having seeing a fellow chunin, no matter how much of an ass he was to many people (including Naruto) getting killed so brutally, it gave him a slight haemophobia after being splashed with the man's blood and some brain matter.

"Well?" Shita called.

Ko gritted his teeth together. He didn't know what kind of abilities this foe had. To charge in using the Hyuuga Gentle fist could be suicide. Next to him, he could see Iruka losing his nerve.

"Oi, Iruka-san." He whispered.

Umino looked to his left using peripherals to acknowledge the Hyuuga. "Hai?" he whispered back.

"Use a doton jutsu behind him and drive him towards me. Just keep supporting me after that."

Iruka nodded. Regaining some of his confidence, he dropped in to a slight running stance and darted right, trying to circle Shita. The rogue ninja pivoted on his feet to turn 45 degrees to keep both men in his line of vision. Iruka continued, determined to make him turn fully or to at least garner all of his attention. Finally getting it, he flashed through the seals for horse, bird and dog.

" **Doton: Unten Kabe**!" (Earth release: Driving wall) A series of walls of solid rock rose out of the ground like steps raced for the man. The Iwa nukenin began a combination of armless back flips to evade them before they pummeled him. The combination of walls stopped rising after the tenth and the whole thing toppled like dominoes. He activated his underground projection and sunk into the ground, leaving the walls to fall unto his location harmlessly.

Ko reactivated his byakugan to start searching for his foe. As he saw him, Ko had to leap off the ground high and to the right. Half a second later, Shita burst out of the ground with a large and crude looking staff-shaped rock pointed upwards.

" **Doton: Chimei-tekina yari raijingu.** " He whispered. (Earth release: Rising deadly spears) He dropped into a squat and slammed his palms into the ground, pouring a ridiculous amount of chakra into the technique. Iruka and Ko saw what he was doing, Ko with his byakugan and the other by doton experience and both jumped up off the ground and did it continuously in random directions as a barrage of rock spears flew upwards out of the ground all over the fighting zone.

When dodging for the tenth time, Iruka absently noted that the tops of the 'spears' were blunt instead of pointed. The original version of the technique could and would skewer dozens of people at once and yet these were just rounded.

'Why are they like that? They look more like staffs.'

Shita stopped the technique, seeing its unfruitful results. He got up and charged the Hyuuga in a dead on sprint. Ko regarded the man and dropped into one of his most used gentle fist stances. Unfortunately, Shita recognized it and stopped himself before he reached him.

'64 palms. Almost forgot that he was a Hyuuga.'

Iruka took his momentary distraction as a potential opening to try and take him on. His hands found both of his kunai holsters and in a second six kunais well on their way to a meeting with the Iwa nin's neck. The man heard them cutting through the air and he dodged them, letting them go on their merry way harmlessly.

Shita smirked. He could have killed them so long ago it wasn't even funny. It was much harder to fight for a knockout than a kill when your enemy was trying dispatch you. He fell into a squat and reformed another rock kunai and stood up, never once letting his opponents leave his line of vision. Doing so could cause a costly mistake.

All three of the men stared at each other, with Shita's eyes slowly wandering between his two opponents. Given all the circumstances, they were at a stalemate.

All knew this but each person needed something that could tip the scales in their favour.

Iruka was still thinking about the blunted spears. He soon came to the conclusion as to why they were that way. 'He's trying to knock us unconscious. That has to be the reason. He's our superior in every skill but he's still not strong enough to subdue us this way. While I'm elated that he won't kill us, why would he do that? He's not above unnecessary killing. He killed Taem, just like that. How are we important to him?' he continued to watch every movement of the man, no matter how miniscule.

After the trio was staring for another thirty seconds, Iruka had a brilliant idea. He slowly fell to one knee in a ball. The action made Shita think that he was surrendering himself.

"Do you yield?"

Iruka did not answer. He slowly focused his chakra so he could perform his next jutsu seallessly.

' **Bunshin no jutsu.** '

He created a regular bunshin that was in his exact position on the ground. It was if he were literally inside the bunshin. He exhaled slowly and realized that he was holding his breath the whole time. Once an action from anyone is initiated and observed by foes, it ends the stalemate. He mentally sighed when the man didn't notice his action.

' **Doton: Chika hira no jutsu.** ' (Doton: Underground projection technique)

He sank into the ground in the same kneeling position, leaving the bunshin on top as his cover-up. He utilized his technique to start moving beneath the ground to finish the man.

Ko smirked as he saw what Iruka was doing and decided to attract Shita's attention by grabbing a kunai out of his holster. The action got what he wanted as Shita's eyes flickered over to him. The Hyuuga began twirling it on his index finger. He wouldn't want the Iwa nin to move; he only needed to distract him.

"What the hell are you doing?" He whispered to himself. Suddenly, he felt his ankles grabbed. He panicked at the sudden deed as he realized he couldn't move. Ko finally threw the kunai he had been twirling and it caught the man square in the chest. The second it impacted, the man was replaced by a large log slightly submerged in the ground.

Ko cursed. He suddenly saw movement behind him and twisted his whole body in a savage jerk as Shita's rock covered fist went through the space his head used to be. He corrected himself immediately and charged the man still heeding the man's rock manipulation. The men had a five second taijutsu bout as each tried to land a hit on the other. While the jounin could easily dispatch a chunin, the Hyuuga's byakugan allowed him to see how chakra manipulated his muscles and tendons to see how he was going to strike him, enabling him to dodge better than the average ninja. Finally, Ko landed two fingers on the Doton user, sealing a chakra point. Shita leapt back and furiously rubbed the spot he was touched before it grew too numb. During that respite, Iruka rose up out of the ground beside Ko.

The scarred chunin was covered in loam from head to toe. He pulsed his chakra slightly and the dirt fell off of him like a snake shedding its skin. "How are we going to stop this nukenin?" he asked half to himself.

"Simple. We kill him." The dojutsu wielder said condescendingly.

Iruka would've sweat-dropped had the situation been lees serious. "I meant how do we kill him."

"Strike him in a vital spot."

Iruka mentally face-palmed. Leave it to a Cadet Hyuuga to take things far too literally. He wouldn't have much time to ponder it as Shita made an Iwa bunshin and charged the two chunin, both of them with rock covered fists.

Umino mirrored the Iwa fists and engaged the clone, intent on finishing it quickly and helping Ko who was contending with the original. But at the way things were going, it seems that Iruka would have needed help.

His taijutsu had deteriorated over the years. He feared that he had grown lax and complacent over time when he was teaching. 'No wonder Mizuki beat me so easily.'

The clone threw a left hook to his cheek which he narrowly dodged by leaning backwards. In the same action, he used the momentum of the dodge to perform a kick to the groin. Despicable? Yes. Below the belt? Absolutely. Did it work? No.

The Iwa bunshin let the kick hit him knowing that Iruka's attack would backfire. And sure enough, it did.

Iruka sucked his breath through his teeth in pain. Not letting his opportunity to slip away, the clone did a sweeping kick at Iruka's only standing leg, making the chunin fall on his back, The Shita look-alike rushed up to stomp him on the chest but Umino rolled sideways to avoid the potentially fatal hit. After all, the clone was made entirely out of dirt and rocks; chances are that its weight was triple that of the original. The clone continued to stamp after him while Iruka rolled until he focused his next technique.

" **Chika Hira!** "

He sunk below the earth, letting the clone stamp on the ground above him. The second the clone did however, Iruka's hands reached up out of the ground and pulled the clone's offending leg underground to the knee. He then rose up back out five feet away.

In the meantime, Ko wasn't fairing off much better. Narrowly dodging his foe's roundhouse kick, he tried to seal the man's tenketsu again when he saw the man put too much force into his kick. But it was for nought, as the man spun once and continued to perform the kick again to compensate for the exertion. Shita swung a back handed punch with his right with a follow up with a rising punch to Ko's chin, making the man's head snap backwards. The pale eyed man recovered from the stunning hit and backpedalled to a safe distance, feeling humiliated at being bested in taijutsu when he was Hyuuga.

Shita smirked.

Ko's anger flared as he dashed to his opponent again, with chakra visible at his fingertips. The nukenin too great care not to get hit by them, deflecting them when necessary by his rock covered wrists. The Hyuuga finally got lucky by striking the man dangerously close to his liver. Almost didn't mean successful, however, as Shita decided to take him more seriously. In response, the rocks on his hands fell of without the binding chakra to hold them. Shita reached out to a nearby rock staff that was sticking out of the ground (His earlier rock jutsu) and broke it off close to the ground. He then lowered his stance to one that was more suitable for the weapon. The Byakugan user saw that he was in deep shit, knowing that the staff would increase his foe's danger factors, especially in giving him a longer reach when he himself had none.

 **With The Hokage**

Hiruzen was reading over the latest mission report that was given to him by Kurenai Yuhi, the jounin sensei of team 8. His nerves had finally gotten the best of him; something in the report was bothering him but he knew not what.

He had considered calling in the woman so she could give an oral report again but that would probably be useless, seeing that everything that the woman had said earlier was virtually identical to the written report.

Right now, his moniker of The God of Shinobi was getting him nowhere. He was reputedly the smartest man alive and this thing was eating him inside like a cancer.

Suddenly, he stopped at his present sentence.

' _The man named Sato claimed that he himself had to put in his chakra to delay the explosive tags.'_

'Hmm.' He read another line.

' _He was reported by Shino to be killed in cold blood by his twin brother whose name was Shita.'_

"Shita? Sato?" the names sounded a bit familiar.

Gears in his head turned slowly. As his mind realized the problem, he reached for his bingo book. Seeing the brothers in an Iwa directory, he read aloud their titles.

"'Masters of the Underground Projection'?"

The gears turned quickly now, and that was when he finally realized.

'He killed his brother for being a handicapping liability. He himself could monitor the explosives. The tags recognize a specific chakra signature so no one else can interfere with them. The tags would still work because his chakra signature is practically the same as his sibling, seeing that they are twins. That's why the explosives cannot be interloped by none other than himself.'

That was what he had failed to realize. This was the same thing that Kurenai said she did not realize but thought she forgot something according to her student. Something about forgetting something important.

'But… that's a key factor. I sent three chunin to dispose of the tags. Their skill-set was problem specific, the sole purpose was for disarming the tags. And they cannot do that now, especially with these tags. So they went for nothing.'

The Sandaime's eyes widened.

'But they still have to go against Shita, who is listed as an A rank. None of them are really combat types. All Iruka knows is probably a couple Doton techniques and Taem Daed is foremost a bomb specialist. And Ko is not much better. He's first a Hyuuga scout with his combat skills a bit inferior. They are not an assault group. Only a disposal squad. But this Shita is listed as a Ninjutsu specialist.'

They were going to die if they clashed with him.

"Anbu!"

An Anbu flashed into the room, this one who was sporting a Neko mask and purple hair.

"Get me Kakashi Hatake, Kurenai Yuhi and..." 'Wait a minute. Asuma's not in the village. He's on a mission with his genin team.' "…Just those two. And tell Kakashi that he better get here within the next two minutes." He said with a warning undertone.

The Anbu understood perfectly what the Hokage was saying. The perpetually late jounin could not afford to be late this time.

She nodded and flashed out of the room in a shunshin.

The Hokage sighed. Hopefully, the chunin wouldn't even cross paths with the nukenin in the first place.

 **With Naruto**

The blond with the whiskered visage paced. He needed to think of a way to get down there. But only his Iwa bunshin could go down presently, and that was because he used the **chika hira** burrow down in the sides. He himself couldn't do that. He knew how to do it, having read up on the jutsu theory for the techniques his clones used but of now, he lacked the skill himself to do it. Something he planned to rectify when he got home.

"How about a shadow clone chain?" Katon clone suggested from where he was sitting, hand still lit up in fire.

"No. It couldn't work. We need light down there so I can see what I'm doing."

"What about a fire clone chain first, and then the shadow clone chain as something to climb down?"

The Iwa bunshin snorted. "Nah. If he had just learnt the jutsu the proper way, we wouldn't be stuck here right now. I mean, he knows, and at the same time, he doesn't? What kind of fucked up logic is that?"

Naruto glared. "Ideas are needed. Not criticism."

"Meh. Hey, remember you fell for the pitfall ambush when you slid down with kunai in the sides?"

"Of course I remem-" Naruto stopped. "You're a genius. Wait, what am I saying? _I'm_ a genius!"

The clone rolled his eyes.

Naruto reached into his holster and pulled out two kunai. The clones were going to mirror the action when Naruto told off the rock clone.

"Why don't you just go down the way you did the first time?" he clicked his tongue. "Idiotic move."

Iwa flushed slightly. "Yeah. Guess it was idiotic. That's because you're idiotic." He taunted his creator. "Am I right Katon?" he looked sideways trying to get jesting support. "If he owns credit for good ideas, he owns the dumb ones as well, huh?"

Naruto himself didn't say anything. What could he have said to that anyway? He deserved it.

They prepared to leave; Iwa bunshin via ground and the katon clone and Naruto stood staring into the pit. As the he heard the rock clone utilize his **chika hira** , he jumped into the hole to opposite side before he chickened out. The katon clone followed soon after.

After a god-awful brief moment of falling, Naruto reached the other side and immediately plunged his kunai in. Unfortunately, the sides were a bit too soft and he was sliding too fast for comfort. Finally, he gave up and took out his tanto and dug that in the wall instead. It was fortuitous that it did. The fire bunshin mirrored the action and the two could just make steady progress by digging in the wall with the tanto till they stopped, pull it out and slowed themselves with a single kunai. When they slid down too fast, they would use the tanto again. It took them a solid three minutes to reach the bottom, at which they suddenly fell from running out of siding to land to the ground. They had slightly bent their knees in the drop, making the-seven foot fall child's play.

"We've reached the bottom of the well. All that's left is to go forward." The katon bunshin said sagely. No sooner had he said it, the Iwa clone rose out of the ground, letting dirt fall off of him. He coughed a little; the action revealed that he had had dust settling in his lungs. He didn't mind it too much, seeing that it was his element anyway.

The fire bunshin channeled more chakra to his technique, letting the flames grow brighter, allowing the trio to start travelling along the now horizontal tunnel. Along the way, they could see dry leaves and rotting twigs, although sparse they were. Naruto motioned for a stop before taking up a leaf to observe it. Albeit dry and crinkly, the leaf had retained enough detail for him to recognize it.

'Tonikkuwōtā.'

Kurama and the clones agreed with him telepathically.

"So they must have dragged the trees here. I can tell from how the branch severed endings are. They're broken and barely held together by the supple outer bark. They even have the lateral scratches." He reasoned out loud most of the time because for some reason things made more sense that way.

Iwa nodded. "I didn't even come this far the last time. This is new to me too."

Katon raised an eyebrow. "So this means that we have no way to know what's ahead of us."

"All we know is that whatever they did with the leaves we're going to find out by going along this path."

Naruto shrugged. "Can't be worse than Kurama."

" **Am I supposed to be insulted? All evil things use me as a measuring stick of all nefarious and evil things. And you're worried about a couple of trees."**

'Are you forgetting that these leaves utilize natural chakra?'

" **That is a dangerous aspect,"** the Kyuubi agreed. **"But chances are that if Shita was down here, he probably would have killed you already.**

The blond waved his right arm slightly in a motion that signaled 'Forward.' They started off again, keeping a sharp lookout.

'How true. Better keep a sharp lookout.' Each of them sans the fire clone took the cue and they drew their blades with fore palms out in a countering stance.

They walked on for another minute before Katon stopped abruptly, almost making the others bump into him.

"What's wrong?"

The clone rotated his wrist a little downwards, allowing more light to shine on the ground below rather than above. The light revealed a half rotting human head sticking out of the ground by the neck. There were clearly worms residing within the half cleaned skull. It was a bit sordid, seeing the small creatures crawl through the ins and outs of the head such as the eye holes.

Naruto nearly retched. He also absently noted that he would never forget the sight. His infallible memory was definitely more of a curse than a blessing now.

They travelled on. Along the way, they would unwillingly see about half a dozen more of the bodies, some more exposed than others along with the fact that some had advanced decay. The smell was nauseating to make it worse.

'It seems that the bodies were half disinterred by underground scavenging animals.' Naruto didn't trust himself to speak with the repulsive odor that offended his olfactory system.

The clones agreed. They didn't speak either though.

The Narutos finally got respite from the smell and they soon arrived in a vast cavern. There was light here even, by what appeared to be large hanging lanterns, so the katon bunshin quelled his flame to stop wasting chakra. All around, the trio could see people who slouched against the walls of the cavern with what appeared to be digging tools strewn about close by. Naruto's heart went out to them when he saw the deplorable condition the people were in. From teenagers to middle aged, most, if not all of them were terribly emaciated and dressed in rags.

All of them appeared to be utterly spent of hope.

He sheathed his weapon and darted around to different people, the clones doing likewise. He checked all of them, seeing if there was anything he could do to help. All of them were weakened badly and he searched around to see if there was any strong enough to talk. Finally finding one, he gently slapped his/her face in an effort to rouse the person.

A dry cough suddenly came from the person's mouth as they opened listless green eyes to see the person who was 'bothering' them.

"…Wha?"

Naruto stopped the action. "Hey. How are you feeling?"

"I… I feel like-" (cough) "-Dried out dog shit. Got any water?"

Naruto removed his canteen from its place his belt. Fortunately, it was almost full. He handed it to the person and they took it hastily and started drinking it. Halfway through, they stopped and limped over to another person. They then tipped the head of the canteen into the other person's mouth. Naruto could only watch the selfless act.

"…Kuru...Kurushimi. Drink." The person getting watered opened their eyes and started to drink as well. But Naruto could tell from the person's slight gagging noises that something could have been wrong with their throat.

Naruto quietly walked up next to the two people. "So, what are your names?"

He had a feeling he knew why. He just wanted the person to tell him the truth. He hoped his guess was wrong.

"My name is Midori. This is my husband, Kurushimi." The woman said. Her countenance, although still poor, had improved greatly not that she wasn't as dehydrated anymore. She continued to fuss over her husband who was debilitated, something that Naruto took note of.

"My name's Naruto. So, uh, what's wrong with him?"

"I- (Cough) -don't know. He has some difficulty breathing nowadays but sometimes water helps."

"Why are you all down here?" He asked testily.

The woman scowled. Naruto thought it was the most suitable and apt expression to go with what she said next.

"We're being forced to work down here." She spat. "Slaves even."

Someone else spoke up haggardly. "We're going to be paid, Midori." Came the statement. The person who said it was unidentifiable to Naruto, due to the strange sound arrangement in the cavern.

"Are you stupid?!" the woman yelled. "Look at how they've treated us. Especially Shita! The only thing that they haven't done is outright kill us. Who knows? Maybe they haven't gotten around to that yet?!"

"Well, at least Sato's not as bad as Shita, right?" The person said slowly. They obviously realized that what Midori had said was correct. "I wonder where they are, though."

"I don't give a rat's ass. We're all sick, hungry, and thirsty and they aren't slave driving us. I say that that in itself is worth a small celebration."

The Uzumaki who had been listening the whole time was upset, knowing that his hunch was right. Most of them, hell, probably all of them were being held here against their will. But why?

He cleared his throat to get the upset woman's attention. In her present state, she now turned on him now, almost angrily. She took note of his hitai ate and ninja-like outfit. "Oh! Oh…" she growled a bit. "So what now... Are you one of our new lords and masters now?" She asked poisonously.

"N…No! I helped you didn't I?" he tried to defend himself.

"You're the only other ninja besides those two bastards to come down here. That means you're with them." She reasoned angrily.

"Then how am I supposed to prove otherwise?"

"Get us out of here."

His expression brightened somewhat. "I was planning on doing that anyway."

He created twenty shadow clones, why roughly by number each went to a different person. They all activated their medical technique for diagnosis. They all checked the person they were with all over.

"Feeble." "Severe dehydration." "Asthma." "Malnutrition." "Advanced emaciation." "Dislocated shoulder." "Muscle strain." "Broken arm." "Broken jaw." "Cracked clavicle." "My guy was stabbed in the left kidney."

"What?!" Naruto couldn't believe it. Just what was really going on? "How did all of that happen? Who did it?"

Midori became even more livid. "Shita stabbed him when he thought he wasn't working fast enough. That was about three hours ago." Even though both of the brothers make us work down here, at least Sato tries to patch us up when his twin gets impatient. That's why some of us not only have working injuries, bu they're punishment injuries. Just… please…" The woman calmed down and seemed almost as if she was begging, as she had clasped her hands together.

"…Help us get out of here…"

The boy was resolute in wanting to help them. He knew not why. For some reason, he wanted to help the lesser fortunate. Perhaps it was because he wasn't dealt the best hand in life.

As in this case…these people.

Even though he had never even seen the man before, Naruto decided that he was going to kill Shita. When the call was finished, he gave the order.

'Alright. Do anything you can to patch them up.'

There was a resolute 'Hai' that rose up and the clones all used the **Shosen** technique to do whatever they could to help. But as expected, there wasn't much that could be done for those who weren't hurt physically, but only lacking nourishment.

The man with the stab wound was a bit complicated to heal. The man wasn't bleeding too heavily but the wound was still a bit too wide for comfort. It needed to be closed up, then healed. Later on the man could get better treatment, was what Naruto figured.

Presently, two clones were working over the man.

"…Alright. I need something to sew it closed."

The first clone looked up. "It's probably too much to ask for a needle, isn't it?"

Midori nodded.

He got up and searched around for anything he could use. After about two minutes, he came across the bones of a recent fish meal. He thought that would work nicely.

He scavenged a long thin bone from off the structure of the skeleton before he strode over to the original Naruto.

"Need some heat." He gestured the bone to Naruto.

Naruto immediately understood. " **Katon bunshin no Jutsu**." He manipulated his chakra to form the clone.

There was a small swirl of flames that came into being next to him and the clone formed. Already knowing his purpose, it recreated the d rank katon jutsu in its palm. Not wasting time, the shadow clone held the bone in the flame for three seconds to sterilize it before removing it from the flame. He had to do it in that short a time or the supple fish bone might become brittle and break too easily.

The Katon clone dispersed itself and the shadow clone walked around Naruto, looking at his clothing. It was apparently searching. Finally seeing what it wanted, it plucked at a loose thread and pulled on it in a fashion that would normally make it worse.

Naruto growled in frustration. He knew this was going to happen anyway. The clone, being as smart as him knew that it couldn't take the thread from others seeing as their clothes were extremely dirty and the possibility of indection was certain. Thread taken from them couldn't be sterilized, seeing as to the fact that it would burn the thread.

Finally getting around six inches of thread, the medic bunshin snapped off the thread and tied it to the slightly thicker end of the bone and went back to the injured man's side. He made the man sit up properly when the man was slouching against the wall. He then nodded to another clone, who nodded back; he understood.

The second shadow clone started dancing on the spot.

"Hey, look at that!" the first clone said to the man. The man looked to the second clone and as soon as he did, he chopped him on the back of his neck, knocking him unconscious.

"…"

"Really?" Midori asked in a deadpan.

"It worked, didn't it?" the clone defended.

He began to sew the man up deftly, from the top of the wound to the bottom, and then to the top again. Each pierce of the bone was exact and he doubled the tread twice to make sure that it was strong enough to hold.

Finally finished, he reclosed the man's garment, got up and stretched. He then dispersed and Naruto analyzed the memory. It was flawlessly done.

"Where did you learn to sew up a wound?" Someone asked.

"I had practice mending my torn clothing when I was younger."

They probably would have sweat-dropped had the situation been less dire. "Anyway," the Uzumaki continued. "Let's go."

All that could walk got to their feet and the infirm or badly ill was supported by the clones. The procession was lead by four katon bunshins with their hands lit in flames for light. The effect was enhanced with three more on each side and two at the back as a result, the tunnel was very bright, helping to get rid of the gloom that had permeated the place.

It was going to be a bit of a walk back. Naruto decided to pass the time by trying to get more info by talking to Midori, seeing that she had some backbone and she seemed the healthiest and the likeliest to talk out of the whole bunch.

"So how did you people get mixed up with the brothers?"

The woman frowned. "Some of us were tricked. And the rest of us were kidnapped."

"What?!"

"It's true. We've been trafficked."

"Human trafficking? I don't know what to say…"

"You don't have to say anything. Just listen." She said firmly, no room for argument. "We were all a part of a relatively poor village. It was alright. Well; compared to this situation it is." She braced her husband more securely on her shoulder as he coughed in a wheeze. "We lived frugally but all of us had heard stories of an easier life. You know how it is. We wanted to have some worldly comforts like having food that was properly seasoned, not just salted. We wanted to have indoor plumbing, not just take a shit in an outhouse over a pit. You know what I'm saying? You probably don't but you should understand where I'm coming from."

"I do. I may have some of those comforts but not all. I kinda live horrible compared to the rest of my village." He saw that a haggard young man to his right start to stumble. He quickly averted such an accident by grabbing his shoulder and bracing him.

"A-…arigato." He wheezed.

"Douitashimashite." Naruto replied. He then nodded to Midori for her to continue.

"So that's how we were. Simple, but wanting more. And out of the blue, the brothers show up. They start talking about this and that, 'business venture'. They were wearing expensive looking clothing. And as soon as they start talking about gold and other precious metals and stones that could buy the 'good stuff', we were sold to the idea."

"I see." He nodded. They were trying to take the easy way out of poverty. Looking back on his own life, if someone was giving him an offer to some luxuries with a bit of hard work, he would have leapt at the suggestion. But as Kurama had said before, nothing was free.

"So about a dozen of us had taken the offer, myself included. I wanted-no, _needed_ the money to help my already sick husband. The older people ridiculed us younger people who took the offer. We didn't care. You know how it is, shirking advice from our elders. So we left with the brothers." Midori looked over to Naruto, as if making sure he was still listening.

Which he was.

"When we arrived, they immediately put us to work. We didn't mind, 'cause we had 'payday' in our minds to encourage us. But after two months, two of us gave up while another died. The brothers claimed that they sent home the first two and they dropped off the one who died back at our village for a proper burial. That dispirited us but we didn't mind too much. They even said that when we found the gold that the persons who gave up would get a small share so they didn't work for nothing while the family of the deceased would get some gold as some compensation. It felt…fair."

The blond nodded. In his mind, such a proposal by the brothers would have sounded satisfactory, had the situation been different.

"So with nine of us, we continued. Over time, four more of us fell ill. They were escorted out, being promised that they would get paid a small portion too. So that's how twelve of us were reduced to five."

Naruto frowned. "So in all, seven people left?"

"She didn't understand his interest in this area, but she answered none the less. "Hai. Seven left."

Naruto growled. "They left. But in a way, they didn't."

"Huh?"

"I found around seven corpses up ahead of us. I think the brothers killed them to keep information about the mine from getting out."

Midori cursed. "Damn it! No wonder we didn't get help sooner, or even any visits from anyone!"

"How long were you all down here?"

"From the original twelve, myself included…around five to six months."

Naruto frowned like a thunderstorm. "So how did the rest of you all get here. After all, there are… " He scanned the crowd of them in a quick count. "Twenty-three of you here."

"Those people were kidnapped. You see, over time, they saw that five people worked much too slowly for their liking. The problem was that probably no one else wanted to come so they were taken in the middle of the night. So I've heard from them."

"It's true." The young man who Naruto had supported earlier wheezed.

"What made it worse was that the food they normally gave to five of us was doubled for all of us combined. That meant that food that was to feed ten people was feeding slightly more than twenty."

"That's horrible. No wonder you're all malnourished. You were underfed, even while doing strenuous work."

"Exactly. And the husband who I did this work for in the first place was taken to work here with me, when he was already sick. So not only were we overworked, underfed, we were all mistreated and tricked. We were probably never even meant to be paid. Damn it all!"

Naruto sympathized with the woman. While being a jinchuriki, there were normal people out there who were also being dealt with harshly. He needed to do his part to put a stop to it, so help him Kami…

Someone yelled hoarsely in horror. Apparently, they had come across their murdered comrades in the way. Naruto created some Iwa bunshins to help him rebury them. Also using some earth manipulation, they were covered by a thick stone slab to make sure that no more disinterring would be done by underground creatures. The group took ten minutes to say some words as a eulogy over them before continuing.

Soon they arrived to the point where Naruto had come down in the first place. Their was a bit of a small panic. The original five claimed that there used to be a rope ladder but for obvious reasons it was no longer there.

Their was a bit of a hullabaloo about what to do next. Some were arguing that they should just go back to the mine while others looked to Naruto to help them. After all, he got them this far.

"We should just return and make it look like nothing happened. They don't have to know we left." One argued.

"I'm not going back to that hellhole they call a goldmine. We have to find a way to climb up. If we go back to digging for gold for them, all we're doing is digging our own graves." Another yelled back.

"What do we do -(cough)- Naruto?"

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking." 'Great, no pressure. Gonna have to get everyone out of here before Shita comes back and kill us all or something.' He looked up, thinking of his past experiences for an idea.

'Kunai? These people can't even walk properly, much less hold their own body weight. Besides, if I use clones to carry them up by climbing with kunai, it'll be cumbersome and slow.' "Clones?! That's it!"

"What is?" Midori looked on, confused. 'Hope he had a good idea.'

"Every one, go back a little down in the tunnel. I need a lot of room for what I'm going to do."

The miners were a bit confused. It put a stop to the temporary arguments as they complied to his demand. After all, he got them this far. Finally getting what he thought was enough space, he formed a ram seal to focus his chakra. Finally getting enough, he formed the modified ram seal (Or half ox seal, whatever it is.)

" **Tajuu Iwa bunshin no jutsu**!" (Multi rock clone technique)

Immediately, brown figures rose up out of the ground around him. They formed into shaped replicas of himself after three seconds and gained color two seconds after. The people looked on in amazement. It looked as if around fifty people just formed themselves out of nothing but rocks and dirt to look just like their helper. To them, they had not seen much use of Ninjutsu so something like this was nothing short of something miraculous.

"Look at that!"

"How did he do that! Its amazing!"

"What is he planning on doing?!"

Naruto smirked a little, knowing that his plan was a great one. 'Thank Kami that I'm no longer a dunce.'

" **That remains to be seen.** " Kurama said, although he was impressed with the idea that the Uzumaki just thought up. " **Throughout all of this, clones are very versatile. They're also cheap for someone of your chakra levels and increased chakra control you have developed so far."**

Naruto grinned inwardly.

" **But don't let it go to your head. You still need to help these people.** "

Naruto grew serious on the outside. "Right. Alright guys, listen up. I want all of you to use the **chika hira**. Starting at ground level from top to bottom, stick yourselves half in the wall and half out. When you have done so, use **Doton: Yoroi Iwa kokera** (Doton: Protective rock scales) and harden your body. The rest of us will simply climb up on you."

"Hai." They answered lowly but firmly. All of them were resolute, seeing that this was serious.

"Alright. Go!"

The clones all yelled out underground projection technique and dived into the earthen side one at a time. Over the course of a single minute, heads and arms jutted out of the wall horizontally. They then all yelled in a reverberation of voices.

" **Doton: Yoroi Iwa kokera**!"

All of their protruding body parts took on the same shade of brown as the wall. It looked so much alike that if one didn't know any better, they would say that it looked as if it was built in.

Naruto took out his tactical baton and hardened it further with some chakra manipulation. He swung it down hard on one of the clones closest to the ground. To his satisfaction, it failed to produce a crack through the jutsu's effect. He then placed a foot on it and pressed down on it with all his weight but the limb didn't budge. He came off of it and smiled at the miners broadly. He then created twenty three more shadow clones who all of which stood beside and behind him.

"Alright. It's sound. All of you get a piggy back on a clone while they climb up like a ladder."

The people cheered and each went to a clone. Each went on a back and held on to the clone's shoulders and neck in a tight hug while the clone climbed up on the Iwa bunshin ladder, using the protruding arms and heads as hand and footholds. Naruto and Midori went last. The boy took last in case anyone fell off he could just try and catch them.

He hoped it wouldn't have to come to that.

While there was a bit of dizziness and vertigo afflicted on the miners, they were told to just close their eyes. It wasn't anything too serious. All the clones along with Midori and Naruto climbed steadily. They were barely hampered by their human cargo, having gone through a lot of strength training with gravity seals. Fortunately, they got by without any accidents and were able to reach the top at the mouth. From then on, they made it back to the entrance. There was an issue with more climbing but this time there was a rope ladder, no worries there.

Everyone finally climbed out of the hole back into the world of daylight. Those who had practically been buried alive in the underground the longest were crying. It almost felt like a dream come true, to be back above surface. To be above ground was truly something one shouldn't take for granted, a lesson they took to heart. Back in full light, they could now properly see themselves. Naruto, for one thought they looked horrible before; they looked even worse now, being in such bright light to enhance seeing detail.

"Oh, Kami." The Uzumaki noticed that a few flies had already taken to them, no doubt because of lack of baths. How such a detail had slipped his mind earlier, he had no idea.

"Well, I can't leave you all like this."

"What do you intend to do about it?" Midori raised an eyebrow. While she was thankful for the young ninja's help, she felt that her established independence was slipping. She didn't care too much though. She and her husband just had one foot in the grave; pride be damned.

"You're all still very hungry, I take?"

There was a fairly weak response of a 'Hai' from the famished miners.

"Alright. Listen up. I need ten of you clones to go into town and bring back enough food for everyone. While I'm sure that the whole town's evacuated by now, chances are there will be some food stocks still in the shops and restaurants that were left behind in the rush. If by any chance that the town is saved, I'll pay for it later. Also, bring back a lot of water for them to drink." He thought of his small chest of savings back home but he decided it was worth it. He didn't have a goal that needed money anyway. Besides, he could always do more D ranks. (Err, clones, that is.)

The clones shunshinned off to the town while Naruto turned his back on the miners, facing Midori.

"I… can do no more."

The woman bowed to him slightly. "Arigatou, Naruto-san."

He bowed as well. "Douitashimashite, Midori-san."

"So what's next?"

"I still have to kill or incapacitate Shita. I also have to go help my fellow leaf nin."

She gained a faraway look. "You should go. I'll handle things here."

The boy nodded and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Midori returned to her husband's side, who's countenance had improved quite a bit. No doubt it was because of the boy's clones that had green glowing hands when they were in the mine. She thanked Kami to have her life back as well as health and strength in her husband, but in a minute, she would be giving thanks for the food and water the clones brought back.

 **With Naruto**

A now hooded 12 year old dashed through the trees, eager to get to the battle site. He now had some motive to kill Shita. He had never killed a man before but he steeled himself for the upcoming possibility. He refused to try and convince himself that he could stop him without killing the man. After all, it was easier to go for a killing blow than a knockout blow. But he needed a plan.

'Shita is probably an Iwa shinobi like his brother Sato. It's likely that he has a dominant Doton affinity. I need to beat his element. I may very well need everthing but wind to beat him. I'll need water to soften the earth if need be. Lightening to cleave. Fire to incinerate. I'll need to take his strength into account because most Iwa shinobi have terrific body conditioning for strength. He'll probably also have a high pain tolerance at his rank, if he can scare a jounin, he must be an elite jounin. Oh Kami, I'm gonna die.'

And with that, he lost his nerve.

" **Need I remind you of exploding clones? Roughly a hundred or even three hundred is a certain kill for most people. Maybe you can even make clones stick to him with chakra or something to that effect.** "

"I believe that that wouldn't work. Remember that Kurenai escaped that. He could use body flicker or even a substitutution to escape. If anything, I only have two advantages at my disposal that will give me a fighting chance. A really good one."

" **And that is?** " Kurama inquired.

"One; I fight with attrition. I release the gravity seals gradually from three to none and try to outlast him with stamina."

" **And the second?** "

Naruto gave a fox-like grin. "Your chakra."

 **With Iruka**

Pain erupted in his gut and he fell to one knee as he dry heaved. His wind was knocked clean out of him from that punch to the gut. Something felt busted.

The rock Shita look alike smirked. He calmly walked around the leaf chunin and prepared to knock him out. A split second before he completed the action, the scar face man suddenly phased into the figure to that of a boy in a dark outfit with a hood over his head.

The neck chop was moving too fast to be slowed down and it caught the lad at it's appointed place. But instead of knocking him out, he exploded in a plume of white smoke.

'What was that? A kage bunshin? Someone intervened. But who?!' the Iwa clone racked his 'brain' for answers.

He looked over to his creator, who was still fighting the tiring Hyuuga trying to avoid the rock staff. Shita noticed the clone's stare in his peripherals and eased off the attack. He leapt backwards around eight meters. The clone also flickered to his side.

"We have a problem."

"What is it?"

"Some kid just helped the guy I was facing. It must be the last boy on the genin team that Sato was talking about. He was wearing a hood over his head."

"Go find him." Shita ordered.

The clone sunk into the earth.

In the meantime, Naruto had a clone beside him that was busy trying to heal his former teacher. In the large undergrowth they were in that was adjacent the clearing, they hid from their antagonist, while Naruto was trying to think of how to take out the Iwa nukenin. He still needed a clean way to beat this guy.

'Iruka-sensei still seems out of it. Even if he's healed, he still can't fight alongside me. Fighting someone who's superior in Doton and taijutsu will only get him killed. I'll have to fight with Ko. He looks like he's in bad shape too. I have to help him, so he'll help me. But where the hell's Daed?'

He looked around the clearing to see the man standing still. At first he wondered why the man was like that until he saw that the man was already killed brutally. He was impaled on some kind of rock spear, staking him upright like a scarecrow.

"Well, the man's dead. No help there. Not that I would want it anyway." He mumbled.

Iruka groaned as he came to. "Ugh. Naruto? Kami, what happened?"

"I just made a clone replace himself with you before you got a neck chop. I need you to stay here. I'm going to fight."

"You can't fight him. He's stronger than me!"

Naruto chuckled. "I'm stronger than you too."

"What?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Mizuki, training ground 4. Need I say more?"

Iruka chuckled a little as well, before spitting up some blood to his left, narrowly missing the clone healing him. "That's true. I'm gonna sit this one out." And with that he passed out.

The clone still healing him frowned. "I'm gonna need some more time to heal him, and I'm not supposed to move someone injured 'till he's had proper help."

"I'll buy you time with a distraction. Heal him enough until it's safe to move him, then bring him back with you to the miners."

"Hai." The clone nodded once.

Naruto nodded back. He pulled up the grey bandana around h is neck over his mouth and nose. The markings on it was that of a particular ferocious looking snarl drawn in red, right over where Naruto's mouth was. He then created a dozen clones, half of which were Iwa bunshins henged into Iruka. "Let's go."

The thirteen leapt out of the undergrowth into the clearing and ran in a perfect V, with the point being led by Naruto.

Straight towards Shita who was battling it out with a weakened Ko.

A mud wall rose up out of the ground in front of the group, cutting of the straight clear path to the man. One of the Irukas close to the front sped up with a chakra increased dash and jumped forward at the wall.

" **Doton: Yoroi Iwa kokera**!" (Earth release: Protective Rock scales)

The clone put both pulled its knees to it's chest as it's skin hardened and turned its whole body into a literal cannon ball, crashing through the wall. The wall crumbled into pieces and collapsed, allowing straight passage again.

As they passed, Naruto gave a mental order. 'Four of you get below ground and take out that Shita rock clone! But don't go below seventy-five feet! We don't want to set off the tags to our chakra.'

Three running Irukas stopped, activated the Chika hira and sunk below the earth. The 'cannonball' Iruka went below the earth as well.

'Four kage bunshins, come with me. One more, heal Ko. The rest of you try to make fighting openings.'

'Hai!'

The running formation split up as five slid to a stop ten meters from the men, drawing tantos. The others did as they were told, flanking around the fighting two.

Shita had noticed them coming the second they leapt out. He had assumed his clone would take them out easily. That was yet to be done. He was still keen on capturing the Hyuuga for collateral in case leaf nin caught up with him. At least he could just kill the brat. But the chunin was back, as well as clones of him.

This complicated things quite a bit.

He just resolved to kill all the present interlopers, and capture the Hyuuga. Simple.

The twisted the staff in a spin around his wrist, deflecting the Hyuuga's palm before jumping away, looking around at the interlopers. He was, in a sense, surrounded.

He looked at the boy's mask. It would scare a lesser man, seeing how intimidating it looked.

He was not an elite for nothing.

He stabbed the staff into the ground, securely making it stand upright. He flashed through several handseals, ending on horse.

" **Doton- Chimei-tekina yari raijingu**!" (Earth release: Rising deadly spears). He spoke his technique evenly and slammed his palms on the ground.

Ko's eyes widened. "Naruto, jump!"

The boy didn't need the warning because his clones underground just got impaled by something rising. All clones as well as the Uzumaki and Ko leapt off the ground in random directions as rock stakes rose up out of the ground. None came close to the jutsu caster. In fact, the only persons impaled were the clones underground, as well as Taem's dead body, further mutilating it.

"Fuck!" An Iruka look alike yelled. " **Doton: Doryuheki**!" (Earth release: Mud wall) He spat out a large quantity of mud on the ground. Instead of spitting it in one place one ground to form a wall, it spread over fifteen square foot area, which covered the offending spikes.

The leaf nin all landed in different places, narrowly missing the spears. Seeing the safe haven a clone created, they all jumped to it.

Shita smirked. He formed the rat hand seal, as all the spears turned diagonally towards the group. They stared wide eyed. Shita slammed his hands together in the seal of snake, making the spears shoot towards the group.

The last two Iruka clones sped through handseals. " **Doton: Doryuheki**!"

This time, the Duo formed the wall upright and around them in a U like shielding dome. Naruto grabbed their shoulders, channeling his chakra into them. The two clones kept on hardening the wall with said chakra, strengthening it. The spears slammed into the wall with piercing damage, but thankfully, none made it through.

"Alright, one of you help Ko. He looks like he's almost out of chakra." Naruto said suddenly. He was going to damn well use the brief respite to gather their bearings.

Ko was immediately looked over by a shadow clone. The man deactivated his Byakugan; the dojutsu was chakra intensive, almost obliterating his reserves. The clone looked him over before activating his **Shosen** technique on the man's hands. There were quite a few cracked bones there when he was parried by the man's staff. In fifteen seconds, it was as good as new before he handed the man a soldier pill.

"Here, Take it."

Ko wasn't going to question the boy's motives. If anything, that could wait until later. But he had to know something. "Where's Iruka?"

"He's getting healed somewhere else. He's safe."

Ko nodded. "Alright, Uzumaki. Arigatou, for helping."

"Douitashimashite. Now let's get back into the fight."

In the meantime, Shita was wondering if the jutsu had gotten through and killed them. He didn't hear any pained dying sounds and he was wondering if he instant-killed the Hyuuga. He still needed him alive. The miners needed time to work, and the Hyuuga would make for decent collateral should more leaf shinobi come.

He made and sent an Iwa bunshin to check. Wariness got him this far in life. The clone approached the dome, from behind where the opening was. He heard sounds of a slight scuffle before it went quite. The man approached the dome to see what it was about but all he saw was a pile of rocks.

And the Hyuuga.

Ko was twirling another kunai on his index finger. Shita received a feeling of déjà vu seeing this.

'It's a distraction.'

He heard movement behind him and ducked and tilted his head to avoid a tanto whose blade would have removed his head diagonally. It grazed his left shoulder, perfectly slicing a small piece of it. It stated bleeding profusely but he didn't notice. He pivoted on his left foot and kicked the assailant straight in the chest.

A Naruto look alike went flying backwards before exploding into white smoke.

"Kage bunshin?!"

He sensed movement behind him and turned to see the Hyuuga running towards him, byakugan ablaze. He cursed, seeing that he didn't have his staff with him to deflect Ko's taijutsu attacks. He got tapped once in the gut before he hacked up some blood. He dashed away backwards from the gentle fist user. As he landed, he noticed a paper bomb at his feet.

"Shi-"

 **Booooom**!

Naruto and the clones body flickered to Ko's side. "Did we get him?"

Ko shook his head. "It was a bunshin."

Naruto and the remaining seven clones assumed stances with their tantos. They all looked around, paranoid of a soon coming attack. They knew not where.

"I see him. He's coming from underground right below us." Ko said suddenly.

Naruto didn't acknowledge the answer. He merely had a thoughtful expression in his eyes. "Ko-san, are those chakra burned Xs directly over the explosive tags?"

'What? This is irrelevant. Our lives take priority over the bombs. The town was already evacuated so what is he driving at?' "Hai. That's correct. Why do you ask?"

The boy grinned. "My clones have come through for me with the answer to that problem. All we need is to make Shita desperate."

Ko tried to keep a stoic demeanor but failed. "We are fighting a losing battle. We need to kill this man while we have the advantage."

"Let's press on then."

Shita rose up out of the ground about fifteen meters to their right. His clothes looked burnt looking, but otherwise still intact.

He was pissed.

Naruto grinned underneath his mask. 'Let's get him.' He mentally ordered. "Ko-san, I'll try to make openings and drive you to him. I need you to stay here." He whispered to Ko, making sure to speak through his teeth. He didn't want Shita to catch on to the plan.

Ko did the same, but he did not agree. "What makes you think you are competent enough to go against him?"

"Hey, he could have killed you a dozen ways already. When I came, it looked as if he was trying to knock you out. Besides, I believe I have been reliable thus far."

The Hyuuga conceded with a hefty exhale.

The boy nodded once before all of his clones immediately shunshinned to Shita's flanks while Naruto approached from behind. Shita didn't know what was going on, but he damn well was going to kill the brat who was meddling.

An Iruka clone slashed at his gut in a rising arc. He simply sidestepped before kicking him in the gut. The clone exploded into smoke. The momentary surprise was enough for the last Iruka clone to do a sweeping kick at the Iwa nin's ankles, making him fall right unto his back.

All the clones finished dashing to Shita to turn him into a pincushion of Tantos but the man replaced himself with a rock with a paper bomb seal attached to it.

A massive explosion erupted and dispersed the clones, much to the boy's surprise. All of a sudden, his 'reflex' kicked in, making him duck a rock kunai stab to the back of the neck. In the same action as he fell into a squat, he slapped his chest and released his tier three gravity seal to none. He almost sighed in relief at the release he felt from his triple weight before he rose back up quickly and backpedaled. Shita felt a bit put off that the boy dodged his stab.

'Shit, is he a sensor?'

As if he read his mind, Naruto decided to push the man a little further. "I'm a sensor. I can even detect your moves before you even do it."

The man's eyes widened before his face went grim. He flung the rock kunai at the boy at ridiculous speeds. Naruto sidestepped left before sprinting at the man, his tanto in a forward grip held low to the ground. Shita's face was that in shock of the boy's newfound speed before he stamped the ground and a staff of rockrose up out of the ground in his upside-down open palm. The man gripped it before performing a falling axe motion with the staff in one hand, intent on braining the boy. The boy dodged the move to the man's right and got into his attack opening and attempted to slash horizontally at the man's armpit. The man let the staff go before backpedaling around four steps. Naruto's wild slash gave the tanto too much momentum but the boy remedied that by directing the tanto and stabbing it in the ground. He formed a single cross handseal and created two katon bunshins.

" **Katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu**!" (Fire release: Great Fire ball technique) the two clones speedily went through handseals ending on tiger before they each blew a large continuous flame towards the man. At the perfect timing, Naruto did a single dog handseal. " **Futon: Daitoppa**!" (Wind release: Great breakthrough)

He blew powerful wind that caught up to the flames, feeding it and made it more powerful. Shita wasted no time. Using perfect earth manipulation, he stomped his right foot and an earth wall rose, shielding him from the flames. The passed him to the sides with the wall taking the brunt of it but Naruto wasn't finished. He threw a kunai with a B grade explosive tag into the flames. It exploded right as it reached the base of the wall. The man now exposed took severe burns. He sank into the earth and travelled again a bit of a distance away before rising again.

Naruto smirked beneath his mask. Shita reached into his pocket, searching for something. Naruto, while curious decided not to let the man gain the upper hand by dashing towards him, supported by his katon bunshins. Before he could reach halfway, the man retrieved three Tonikkuwōtā leaves and quickly ate them. Almost immediately, the man's chakra flared up visibly and he charged at the boy as well.

Just before they reached each other, Shita's right hand blurred out of existence and then back again. Naruto suddenly felt pain in his gut and his two clones disperse. The stomach pain was excruciating and it disrupted his running. He doubled over and tucked in his head before performing a shoulder roll. However, he failed to finish it properly due to the pain. He finished by sliding on his back, hurting his tailbone horribly.

"Arrg!"

Shita pivoted a leg sideways and slid, keeping his posture upright. He flashed through several hand signs. " **Doton: Shinko kushi ni sasu**!"

Naruto's eyes widened in memory of the technique. He shut his eyes, praying, hoping that reflex would kick in; his pain receptors were killing him. Thankfully, it did. His body went on automatic and did a perfect kip up, despite his 'mind' screamed for it to rest. A split second later, a rock branch spike shot up out of the ground. His body then altered its centre of gravity and did a side flip, avoiding another one that rose. Absentmindedly, he noted that this must have been the jutsu that killed Daed. 'Hey Kurama, you see that? He's getting desperate. Now, I need to beat him half to hell then mock him. Then, he'll do it.'

" **I see. Now would be the best time to start using my chakra. You only need the feral jinchuriki state.** "

Naruto mentally nodded gratefully as he felt power course through his being. "Lets get to it," he muttered. He formed three clones and all Narutos drew tactical batons. They charged at the man so quickly the man's eyes couldn't track them.

"What?!"

They practically ran circles around the man before he felt (or rather _sensed_ ) a baton swing at the broad of his back. He turned and grabbed the metal before punching the clone. It poofed away into smoke before another clone slugged him in his side. The clone then exploded in a minor Daibakuha (Great explosion) and sent the man flying. As the man's body flew in the air, Naruto whacked him with his baton in the man's knee, shattering the cap.

"Graagh!" the attack made the man's momentum slow enough for the man to fall to the ground. Unfortunately, it was still enough to send him sliding on the ground in a pile of limbs towards Ko.

The Hyuuga closed the distance and started to jab at the man's tenketsu, reducing the man to jelly.

"Hah. You are nothing but scum!" the Hyuuga turned his back on the man, confident that he couldn't move after all that.

"Ko-san! That's not him! That's my clone! Get away from it!" Naruto yelled.

Ko's byakugan had already told him of those changes before he leapt away to a safe distance, the clone exploding in a daibakuha. This explosion was fairly moderate. The Iwa nuke-nin appeared where Naruto's clone was. But he was still beat up and trying to suppress his groans. He crouched on his good knee with his bad leg set crazily on the ground.

"You think…you can…beat me?"

"Man, I'm a genin. I bet everyone can beat you. Besides, I don't think legs are supposed to bend that way"

"What?"

"Hey, I'm just saying. I think I had more trouble with Sato."

Shita was a proud person and had always considered himself the superior of the twins, despite them using similar techniques. To hear these words coming from this brat's mouth…

"Die! **Doton: Zetsubo tsukamu!** (Doton: Despair's clutches)

Naruto smirked under his mask. This… this was what he was waiting for. "Ko! Shunshin the hell out of here!"

The Hyuuga frowned but complied. Shita braced himself on his good knee before blurring through hand signs before slamming his hands on the ground and pouring chakra into his technique. In an instant, chaos started to reign.

Naruto created twenty four Iwa bunshins quickly. 'You know what to do. MOVE!' he screamed mentally.

" **You heard him. GO!** " Kurama yelled as well.

The clones utilized the Underground Projection and sunk below the ground. At the same time, the whole clearing turned into a swirling mire of mud with Shita at its eye on a small dry haven of grassland. "You're going to die, you fucking brat!"

Naruto started expelling large amounts of chakra at his feet to remain on top of the. He had plenty of chakra to spare, even from Kurama. He wasn't going to tell Shita, though.

"You'll soon run out of chakra and sink. Your air will forsake you. You will suffocate! And when the jutsu is lifted, the land will crush your corpse into paste. You will die!" Shita gloated. He took one palm of the earth before reaching into his pocket and retrieved a presumed dozen tonikkwota leaves. He quickly ate them before his entire being pulsed with extremely bright blue chakra. He replaced his palm on the ground and channeled a huge amount of chakra into the technique. The jutsu's prowess increased and Naruto was having difficulty remaining on top. It wasn't because of lack of chakra. His output was not enough. His feet started to sink and the lad panicked. He formed a cross hand seal.

" **Tajuu kage bunshin no jutsu**!" A large amount of clones appeared in front of him, many standing on each other. They started to protest mentally at their situation before Kurama yelled at them to be quiet.

" **Shut the fuck up and take it like clones! Are you seeing your time of the fucking month?!"** the Kyuubi roared.

They stopped their panicking and just resigned themselves to their fate. In the meantime, Naruto clambered up onto the large group of them. As each group sank, he would create more to stack up on each other. He could already feel his chakra start to wane. He couldn't keep this up forever, was his dominating thought.

The Iwa nukenin growled before adding more chakra; the ground started to take on a faint blue colour. Such was the large amount of chakra in it.

'Aww, fuck me! Doesn't he ever quit!' Naruto yelled mentally.

'Alright, we got the tags! It's fine. They're not exploding.' An Iwa clone said mentally. The response was quite calm, as if he didn't know of what was going on above ground.

'Finally.' Naruto sighed in relief. He took out his tanto for the last time and flung it straight at Shita. The blade spun quickly as it made its way to the man. Shita saw it but he couldn't move to stop it, as he was practically crippled. He just sat there and watched it. At the back of his mind, he felt that at least this way, he wouldn't die just after saying some shitty last words remark.

The blade finished its journey and cleaved its way into the top of the man's head, fatally killing him. He toppled backwards onto his back, eyes wide in death. In that same second the jutsu stopped its rotation and it settled, although the ground still retained a faint blue colour, chakra was abundant in the soil.

The clones rose up out of the ground five seconds later, seeing a panting Naruto on top of a pile of clones who seemed relieved. They were probably happy to not die a horrible death. The 24 Iwa bunshins looked a bit panicky but their case was understandable.

The each had an A rank explosive tag balled up and heavily coated with mud.

"Oi! Boss! Wake the hell up and help us get rid of the damn explosives!"

Naruto's adrenaline spiked again and he leapt off the clone pile, land unto the mud as if it were solid ground. He expended chakra to his feet and made his way to the clones. "Alright. Everyone got the tags?!"

"Hai!" (x24)

Naruto ran to Shita where his body was. He pried his tanto out of the man's head, letting the brain matter flow out of the slit.

"Ugh." He grimaced under his mask and cleaned off the blade on the man's animal skin clothes. While he was at it, he pulled it off of the corpse (The upper torso clothing) and tied one end of it, fashioning a makeshift bag.

"Alright. Everyone drop the tags in here. Quick!" he urged his bunshins.

They all hurriedly dropped the tags in the shirt and Naruto scooped up some more chakra-laced mud and dropped it in the 'bag'. He then tied the opposite end and felt it. It had an ideal weight…

…For throwing.

He quickly put down the bag on the dry island where Shita was. He was about to kick him off in the mud but he changed his mind; he probably had a bounty. He dispelled his rock clones with a word of thanks before he created two Futon bunshins and one katon bunshin and a shadow clone.

"Alright-y, let's get the damn thing out of here. Kage bunshin! Throw it up!"

The clone took the bag from him and started spinning it in a circular motion at the shoulder before throwing it straight into the sky, going quite far.

"Alright! Fu-bunshin! Daitoppa, now!"

" **Futon: Daitoppa**!" " **Futon: Daitoppa**!" " **Futon: Daitoppa**!"

He and the clones formed the dog handseal and blasted the combined wind technique at the still rising object that further propelled the bag into the sky.

"It's high enough. Take it out Ka-bunshin!"

Said bunshin smirked before speeding through four handseals ending on tiger. " **Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu!** " (Fire release: Fireball technique) he practically spat out a medium size at the bag with 24 A grade explosive tags with impossibly accurate aim.

 **AN - (Hellllooo, people. 'Focus' is not a mediocre ability!)**

There was no question what would happen when the ball of fire caught up with explosives.

 **That's it. This is practically the end of the first arc. I have three things to explain.**

 **1\. I practically spelt it out why the bombs didn't go off when the clones interloped them underground. You're smart people. But even so, Naruto will explain a few things in the next chapter. Now for names:**

 **Kimyō Town- Strange town.**

 **Kinkou- Gold mine**

 **Shita- Below (I bet you thought it was a typo of shit, didn't you?)**

 **Sato- Village**

 **Jinshin Baibai- Human trafficking**

 **Tonikkuwōtā- tonic water (I think this one was obvious, along with Sato)**

 **Enerugi- Energy (Also a bit obvious)**

 **Kurushimi- Suffering, Midori- green (Mentioned today, green was Midori's eyes while her husband was debilitated.)**

 **2\. I was really busy with school work (If you think I'm employed at a school or learning in a school, that's your business.) and the update was a bit neglected. But hey, 3k extra, hope that made up for it. Besides, review the story! I only got two or three reviews for chapter 16. It's discouraging.**

 **3\. The main theme so far is basically Charity. We go through life, not really caring about the lesser fortunate. We see them everyday and they plead for our help. And we answer…**

… **by looking aside, pretending we don't see them or hear them. We've become insensitive to their situation. If you want to help them financially, fine. You don't trust them with money? [Drug users, perhaps? :( ] Then for God's sake give them a couple of fruits or something. They'll appreciate it. Trust me. They don't really care for the physical help. They just appreciate that we just care for them. Period.**

 **Sigh. That's all folks.**

 **Sayonara.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Breaking Limits**

 **The house is asleep. All one can hear in the lonely night is the sound of keyboard keys being tapped and clicked repeatedly. While the author is a bit tired (-Yawn-) he continues, knowing the sooner he finishes, the sooner he can crawl into bed.**

 **Disclaimer: Yes! I own Naruto! Its mine! Its mine… Huh? I must've dozed off. I still don't own the anime. But just to make sure that we're crystal clear, I'll clearly state it.**

 **I** **don't** **own Naruto.**

 **(-Yawn-)**

 **18.**

Kakashi and Kurenai leapt through the tree as fast as they could in their haste to get to Kimyō Town. The Hatake was silent, being completely focused mentally and physically. Yuhi on the other hand was thoughtful, thinking mainly on the fact that she had to come back here.

And the critical complication that the Hokage had now told her what they had 'failed to realize.'

 **Flashback**

She took another bite of her sweet dumpling before slowly eating it. It looked a bit sensual but her companion Kakashi was only susceptible to the written art. He was a man of imagination, who seemed as if he didn't actually care about the real thing. The red-eyed woman glared a little at the elite jounin who was reading his worn version of Icha Icha Paradise; he merely gave an eye-smile before going back to his book, probably reciting it in his mind word for word while giving his fellow jounin an indifferent appearance. Yuhi gave up her scorning attitude before asking her question again.

"So what do you think?"

He lowered the book. "To be honest, I'm not too sure. Besides, weren't Sato and Shita known as 'Masters of the Underground Projection'?"

"Hai."

"And your genin Aburame said that Sato was killed by his twin brother Shita? How did he die?"

"At the recounting Shino said that Shit threw a kunai that took Sato in the throat."

The silver haired man thought over that part. "I'm not getting anything underlying that part. What did Shita say when he killed him?"

"He said he was a liability and too weak to stop anyone who would come to stop them."

"Hold on… what rank were they at? Do you know?" Kakashi asked with his visible eye narrowed.

"He fought at a jounin level. He was very hard to beat and I came near death in that fifteen minute fight around three times. Kuso, Naruto himself warned me of an underground attack that would have staked me alive." Kurenai said.

"Naruto warned you? Well, guess he cares for you after all." Kakashi was unusually surprised, showing emotion other than just general apathy.

"He warned the whole team. I don't know how he knew, but he warned us of the attack when I myself couldn't sense it. Besides, if he actually cared before, he won't care for me now. He said that if I died, he wouldn't care."

"How come?" The Hatake did not expect behavior like this from the blond boy.

"He believes that I was using the team as a distraction so that Sato would split his attention between me and the genin so I could beat him easier."

Kakashi narrowed his visible eye almost shut. "Were you?"

Kurenai almost shivered under his gaze, knowing that the man had the ideology that valued comrades more than rules. "I…"

An anbu came beside them in the dango shop in a poof of smoke. "Yuhi Kurenai, Hatake Kakashi. Hokage-sama wishes to see you _immediately._ " The Neko-masked anbu spoke, stressing the last as she looked to the man. Kakashi at present was in a no-bullshit mood so he got up and shunshinned away to the office, followed by the anbu.

Kurenai sighed deeply. "Well…shit."

After ninety seconds of urgent body-flicker travel, the three finally arrived in the Hokage's office to see Hiruzen's face grave. Kakashi was serious as well so Kurenai got into the swing of things, setting her face as well.

"Neko, dismissed."

The anbu flashed back up into the rafters, as silent as her profession entailed.

"Kakashi-san, Kurenai-san."

The two answered at attention. "Hai?" "Hai?"

"I have an assignment for you. At One p.m. yesterday, Genin team eight comprised of Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga and Naruto Uzumaki, led by Kurenai Yuhi departed for a C rank mission to Kimyō Town. The mission has now been filed as an A rank, due to unforeseen complications. Your orders are to kill or incapacitate Shita, one of the brothers known as the Masters of the Underground Projection, nukenin of Iwagakure no Sato. You are to finish evacuating the town of any stragglers and assist Ko Hyuuga, Taem Daed and Iruka Umino in neutralizing the threat Shita poses."

The two elite jounins nodded.

"The explosive tags however, cannot be removed or disposed of. The chakra tags will only recognize Sato's or Shita's chakra or they'll go off. You will leave immediately and return by midday tomorrow. All the residents of Kimyō town are to be escorted here for processing and relocating. Dismissed."

Kurenai had an expression of realization cross her face for a full second when Hiruzen explained the chakra tag nature and the fact that three mediocre chunins couldn't face the nukenin. Sarutobi waved his hand in dismissal and they shunshinned away in a swirl of leaves.

 **Flashback end**

Kurenai landed neatly on a large branch and jumped off it neatly through the trees using chakra enhancement. Kakashi was now ahead of her, obviously in a hurry. Fifteen miles was nothing to them but to the masked man, the miles wouldn't go by fast enough. He was already angry with Kurenai. She was probably guilty of using the genin as distractions after all, even more so with two clan heirs and his sensei's son.

 **His sensei's son.**

In all things, Naruto could be the closest thing to kin that the Hatake has and to think that one of his friends could have used him for a distraction made him pissed. But he had no wish to cast judgment until he had all his facts straight. Especially given the fact that he hadn't been the kindest to Naruto, especially of late when Uzumaki had asked him for clone ninjutsu help too.

"Kurenai."

The woman's eyes averted to the jounin who still had his eyes dead-set forward. "Hai?"

"Did you or did you not use your genin team for a distraction when you were fighting Sato?" The silver haired man asked evenly.

Kurenai was afraid he would repeat his question and she herself was afraid of the answer. The woman felt unclean, felt… filthy even. "H-h-hai."

Kakashi sighed when he heard her melancholic tone. "I don't want to be self-righteous. I have my faults. Like for my own team."

Kurenai knew what he was talking about. Not his team seven. _His team seven._

"Why?"

"I was outclassed by Sato and I realized that I needed to handicap him to win. Every so often, I would use a genjutsu on him that showed the team creeping up on him to kill him. Although he dispelled them, his paranoia increased, as I wanted to. He would constantly fight and looking over to where the team was and would send clones. I finally incapacitated him while he was in the process of creating an Iwa bunshin."

Kakashi's visible eye closed while they continued to dash through the trees. "Did you care if Shino had gotten killed?"

"Hai. Of course."

"What about Hinata?"

"Absolutely."

"Naruto?"

She hesitated. "Hai…?"

Kakashi groaned. "Don't lie to me Kurenai. I won't hold it against you if you hated him. He's housing the beast that killed your father. You have an obligation to hate the boy simply for the fact that he holds the demon at bay. It makes sense. I don't expect you to understand the difference between the boy and the beast itself," he said the last condescendingly with a hint of sarcasm.

"…" She now appeared guilty, noting his tone.

"I don't expect you to love him. I don't expect you to hate him either. All I ask is for you give him to give him some prospect at being accepted. Remember when he talked about the Kyuubi?"

"Yeah. He said it apologized for killing my tou-san."

"To be honest, I don't know if it is a good thing or not, the two who seemed to be speaking to each other which is probably bad news or the fact that Naruto said that it was repentant. He was truthful. Bottom line is, even though you lost your last living family member to the beast, it apologized. And you're going to hold it against Naruto?"

"The Kyuubi could be up to some trickery-…"

"Kurenai. You digress. Will you or will you not hold it against the innocent, which is Naruto?"

She was about to try to beat around the bush again when she heard a massive explosion somewhere above them. The two jounins both gazed upward to see a massive fireball-like explosion in the sky, its horrible brightness rivaling the sun's intensity. There were actually a few visible shockwave ripples coming off of it and the biggest one reached them. While it wasn't strong enough to harm them, it was jarring enough to knock them from their footholds in the trees which also had leaves violently blown off.

"What was that?!" Kurenai yelled while in midair from her fall. She landed gracefully on her feet and looked to her companion who had landed as she did.

"As you can see, it was a powerful explosion." Kakashi shrugged and scratched the back of his head unflappably. "We should hurry. No doubt it's tied in with Kimyō Town." He leapt back up into the treetops and beckoned for her to follow. They were soon on their way again.

They were silent while finishing the journey, something Kurenai was thankful for. The woman sighed inwardly as she contemplated the fact that the explosion had saved from answering a question she didn't know the answer to. Or rather the fact she didn't know what to answer.

Kakashi on the other hand had **not** forgotten the question. But now seeing the woman with a thoughtful expression, he decided to let her stew in her own thoughts for the moment. The question was a bit rhetorical after all.

 **Two minutes before, with Naruto.**

"It's high enough. Take it out ka-bunshin!" Naruto yelled.

The blond could have sworn he _sensed_ the clone smirk while going through the hand signs for the fire technique it readied.

" **Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu**!" (Fire release: Fireball technique)

Naruto watched the fireball climb into the sky at the still-rising bag of paper bomb tags with incredible accuracy. At the apex of it's journey, the fireball caught up with the bag of dormant explosives and chaos ruled the sky in all of its glory.

 **Booooom!**

The boy and his clones who were staring at the fireball intently suddenly had to cover their eyes as a flash of bright, glaring orange dominated the sky for a split second. After the event, a large ball of explosive-created fire occupied the sky. A strong shockwave ripple caught up to the boy and his clones, dispersing them and knocking him clear off his feet and unto his back in the still solidifying mud.

"Oof! Kuso!"

He laid there for another ten seconds watching the explosion die away into smoke before even that faded away rapidly. He groaned as he heard his ears ringing. He got back up to his feet and lightly slapped his chest turning back on his tier three gravity seal. The respite he had from the seal's removal fled as he felt his 'normal' weight return, making him slightly buckle at his knees. He then straightened himself before he pulsed his chakra lightly and the mud fell off of him, leaving him clean. Finally, he pulled back down his feral looking mask-bandanna and dropped his hood.

"Well. That's that."

He checked his clones' memories that had recently dispersed before grinning. 'He _was_ smirking. Oh well. He had some of me in him, that's all I can say.'

" **He** _ **was**_ **you, he's your clone. Of course he's going to inherit your attitudes along with abilities. Anyway, have you a storage scroll?** "

Naruto shook his head. 'No.' he felt around his body. 'As a side note, I used up what few bomb tags I had in that fight.'

" **Well, you still have to collect the man's head. He probably has a bounty on him.** "

He looked over to the dead man. 'I hadn't forgotten about the bounty. But I have nothing to put the man's head in.'

" **Nothing? Nothing at all?"** the Kyuubi asked pointedly.

The Uzumaki caught the hint and looked over to the man again and grinned. 'Well, I used his shirt with no problems.'

The Kitsune demon did not answer as Naruto ambled over to the corpse, eyeing it. When he reached it, he kicked it a little as a passing taunt; just for kicks.

As expected, the man with his brains and blood seeping out of an opening in his skull did not answer. He created a fire bunshin to which he handed his tanto.

"Take his head and sear the neck closed with fire. When you're done with that, burn the body."

The clone nodded and went to his task. In the meantime, Naruto retrieved the man's pants and walked off a little distance with it to work over it.

'Good thing he had underclothing on.'

A few minutes later, the clone carried the man's head by his hair and carried it over to his original who was done making the necessary adjustments to the animal skin pants. He had tied the pant legs together in a large knot at the crotch and at the ankles. These would be the handles. However, the waist was a bit more complicated. He used a kunai to make four small holes in four places at the top of the pants at the waist; front, back and sides. He then ran ninja wire through all of them twice until the both of the wire's ends were sticking out through the hole in the right side. The clone dropped the head into the waist of the pants that would hold it. Naruto then pulled the wire closing the top of the pants and tied it together closely so that not even daylight could pass through. He then flipped the pants over and held it by the ankle-handles, the head secure in the waist. Shita's head was sitting inside the seat of his pants.

The ka-bunshin grinned wryly in an amused manner before it dispelled. The Uzumaki, satisfied that his job was now done shunshinned from the site to make his way to the mine entrance to find Sato's body. He probably had a bounty as well. Since he was killed just this morning, he shouldn't be rotting, still being in good condition.

 **With the Miners**

Midori ate another rice ball quickly before moving on to the basket of buns in her voracious appetite. All around her, the other twenty-two of her 'former colleagues' were eating in a similar manner. It was no surprise to their twenty two 'guardian' clones who were watching them. There bodies had long since adapted to small portions in perpetual hunger that they had snapped when they had seen what could be likened to a buffet.

The woman belched in satisfaction as her now firm stomach reached capacity. Around her, her associates had arrived to similar states, much to the relief of the clones. The group had long since seen the explosion in the sky. The miners hadn't paid it attention for more than a minute before going back to eating. The clones however getting updates on everything happening through the mental connection. From the plans to the clones dying in quick-mud, they heard it all.

A shadow clone came out of a shunshin next to the group holding two buckets of water and clothing over it's left shoulder.

"This is the last." The bunshin announced, looking over to Kurushimi. The man was the only yet to have a bath. Everyone had bathed under their own power but Midori's husband was only able enough to lift food to his mouth, which took far less effort to clean one's self.

"Who's gonna bathe hime?" a clone asked. He looked to Midori lifting an eyebrow. All the clones mirrored the action. This was not lost on the green-eyed woman.

"I'll do it. After all, he's my husband." She nodded to the bunshins. Two of them nodded back before lifting the man and supporting him by the shoulders before carrying him behind a tree fifty yards off and rested him on the planks set up there. The boards were there to allow a person to bathe and the water to seep between the spaces to the ground below. The ground there was half-wet, indicating that everyone else had already cleaned up and had their change of clothes.

"Alright. I got him," she eased up her spouse in a sitting position. "Where's the water?"

One of the clones left and came back with the two buckets of water and the clothes. "This here's the soapy water with the washcloth. The other is for rinsing." 'Naruto' said, placing down the buckets next to the couple. He then slung over the clean clothes over a tree branch. "And here's the change of clothes."

"Arigatou." She thanked the clones who had started walking off to give the two some privacy. Midori started stirring the soap-water bucket to excite the soap before committing to her task.

 **Five minutes later.**

Midori finished clothing her husband and walking him back to the group. When she arrived she saw that there were two ninja wearing flak jackets. One had very pale eyes and was frowning deeply while the other had a scar going over the bridge of his nose and was propped up in a sitting position at the foot of a tree, unconscious and being attended to by a clone.

"What's going on?" She announced her presence to the group, turning all eyes to her.

'Naruto' spoke up. "These are the fellow leaf ninja I told you I was going to help. This is Hyuuga Ko," he pointed to the pale-eyed man. "And this is Umino Iruka," he now pointed to the scarred chunin who started to stir. The healing clone next to him sighed in relief before he stood.

"He's fine now. He had some internal bleeding in his stomach but it gave me a hell-of-a time trying to fix it. He nearly had his stomach acid eat through the bleeding part. Whew!" he wiped away imaginary sweat. 'Damn good thing the boss decided to get some medical training or Iruka would've had had his own stomach for lunch. Practically, anyway.'

"Is that so?" Ko asked with a stoic appearance, yet his tone sounded unbelieving.

"Yeah. That's so." The med-clone reaffirmed.

Iruka now fully lucid had overheard what had been wrong with him. "Internal bleeding, huh?" he coughed a little to clear his air passageways. "Feel much better now. In fact, I can't feel an ounce o' pain. Arigatou, Naruto."

"You're welcome, Iruka-san." The medic bunshin saluted before it dispelled itself.

"So, uh, anyone gonna tell me what happened after I fell unconscious?"

The original Naruto came out of shunshin in the center of the group as Iruka asked his question, startling the civilians. (Obviously the ninja aren't so jumpy.)

"We won. It's as simple as that." Naruto said evenly, dropping his two 'bags' with mystery contents unto the ground close to Iruka, taking a seat himself beside the man.

"What? How?" Iruka was boggled.

"Oh. You missed everything. I didn't realize that. Long story short, you missed the light show of a lifetime."

"Oh! You mean that explosion high up in the air around ten minutes ago?"

Naruto looked around wildly before calming down. "Oh… it's you, Kakashi-san. Kurenai- _sensei_." He rolled his eyes. "Now the backup arrives. Guess you finally realized it, huh, Kurenai- _sensei_?" he rolled his eyes.

The woman scowled. "Naruto. What is the meaning of this?"

The masked jounin held out his hands in a placating gesture while eye-smiling. "Now-now. Let me handle this. Besides, he said they won."

"…How long were you there?"

"'Bout the same time as you. Are you gonna tell us what happened?"

"…"

"Please?"

"Fine." 'At least he said please.' "I think Ko-san and Iruka-san should explain, up until my clone subbed with Iruka."

Yuhi frowned. "…'Subbed'?"

"Substituted." Hatake explained.

"Ah."

Ko cleared his throat to indicate that he would speak. Getting the attention he wanted, he explained everthing that had happened, in great detail. "…and then Naruto used a clone to substitute with Iruka before he fell in battle."

Kurenai looked to Naruto and raised an eyebrow. "Well?"

"Well? I think Ko should finish explaining. If anything, I'll explain what happened after he shunshinned away at the last." Naruto said matter-of-factly. The boy realized that the Hyuuga did not have his byakugan on the whole fight. He didn't want the jounin to gain information on his abilities that could be avoided. He still wasn't a master at lying without telltale signs or at using double-speak.

Midori tied to interject. "So hold on, there were bombs under the ground and that crazy son-of-a-bitch tried to sink a town?!" she asked incredulously.

"Uh… yeah. Pretty much." The Uzumaki scratched his head a bit sheepishly, knowing what was coming next.

"When were you going to tell us about that?!"

"Didn't need you all to start panicking and what-not." He said, embarrassed.

Iruka pursed his lips and whistled shrilly. "Alright. Anyway, Ko-san, please continue."

In five or so minutes, the Hyuuga wrapped up his verbal description. "…And his exact words were 'Ko… shunshin the hell out of here!'. Seeing that he had been a tremendous help, I followed his instruction."

"…You took the 'instruction' of a genin?" Kurenai asked.

Ko was about to defend himself when Naruto beat him to the punch. He cleared his throat loudly getting all eyes focused on him. "Ergh-Hem. 'Everyone Jump!'" He raised his voice to announce the last.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…Um. Sounds as if he's referencing something that happened before?" Kakashi suggested.

Yuhi suddenly remembered when she fought Sato the first time. 'Oh.' "He's probably talking about how he warned the rest of team 8 from rising rock branches."

The Uzumaki pretended to clear his throat again.

"Damn it. I as well. We all heeded his warning." She blurted angrily.

"Don't worry Ko-san," Naruto smiled. "That's her way of saying she's sorry."

Said man merely raised a tired eyebrow.

"Anyway, it's a good thing he did," Naruto said seriously. "Shita used the same earth technique as Sato the first time that just…sucks things underground like quicksand. You know…" he trailed off. "The first jutsu we nearly succumbed to the first time because we nearly couldn't escape in time?"

"…"

"I'm probably the only person who has enough chakra to move **on** something like that and Hyuuga-san was running on fumes at the time so…"

Kakashi nodded for him to continue.

"I had a plan for when he would get desperate to use such a destructive jutsu just for two people, just 'cause he could. The second he started, I created twenty four Iwa bunshins to retrieve the twenty four A-grade tags that were set up in the aquifer. They did this while I occupied the man's attention on top, mocking him so he would use more chakra in the technique so he could kill me quicker."

The other ninja finally connected the dots. "That's genius Naruto." The Hatake beamed an eye-smile.

"And a huge gamble. He could have set off the tags prematurely. The town would have sunk before time and every one of us here would have been killed." Yuhi argued.

"Did it?" Naruto asked evenly.

"Did what?"

"Did. It. Happen?"

"No. But-"

"I think we should explore this issue another time, Kurenai-san." Iruka interjected after listening the whole time. "The town was doomed anyway. The town's not gonna get destroyed, Naruto stopped Shita and he saved around…" his eyes wandered quickly around the camp. "Twenty-three people who were slave driven. And according to him, I damn near digested my own stomach. By Kami, we should be celebrating!" Iruka practically yelled in the boy's defense.

"Speaking of which… Naruto?"

"Hai, Kakashi-san?"

"How did you 'stop' Shita, one of the supposed twin masters of the **Chika Hira**?" The silver haired jounin asked curiously. 'Naruto took down an elite jounin who had some battle reputation. How strong is he?'

"I… flung my tanto into his head." The boy said dryly.

Kurenai's eyes narrowed. "Explain, _genin_."

Naruto sighed inwardly. 'So she's pulling rank, huh.'

" **Show them. Heh Heh."** Kurama chuckled in a low rumble inside the seal.

The boy shrugged before he reached for one of the 'bags' and released the ninja wire keeping it closed. He reached inside and pulled out Shita's head by the locks of his hair and held it out, for all to behold.

Kurenai's eyes widened, Kakashi's visible eye closed in silent contemplation while Ko grunted. The miners all turned away from the sight while Iruka paled. He got up and went behind the tree. A second later, the sound of his retching was heard.

The blond gestured the head towards Kurenai. "See. This is where the tanto got him." He pointed at the long bloody line that ran from mid forehead to the centre of the top. "It can't get any clearer than that."

"Naruto."

"Hmm, Kakashi-san?"

"Put it away."

Naruto shrugged and placed it back in the (pants) 'bag'. "Uh-huh. Ok."

"Now Naruto. It's just me. Not Kurenai. Not Iruka or Ko or the miners. It's just me. I just want some yes or no answers."

"Alright, Kakashi-san." The boy rolled his eyes inwardly.

"He was crippled when he did the jutsu. Correct?"

"Hai."

"You told Ko to leave because the jutsu would require a huge amount of chakra to remain on top of. Correct?"

"Hai."

"You created clones to retrieve the tags because you knew the jutsu would channel a huge amount of the user's chakra into the soil right down to sub-terrain levels, knowing the tags would **not** go off."

"Yes."

"When you saw the clones with the tags, you killed Shita by throwing your tanto and it caught him in his head."

'My clones told me telepathically but I can't let them know that I can communicate with them with them mentally. Have to divert the lie by mentioning something else.' The Uzumaki thought.

"Naruto? Please answer the question."

"Yeah. It caught him in the head because of the angle I was in."

"Angle? Elaborate."

"The technique's pull became more powerful over time and I had to resort to creating numerous shadow clones to make tall 'dry islands' for me to stand on. When I heard of the clones' success, I threw the tanto from my vantage point. That's why the blade slashed into the top of his head."

"Alright. So after he was killed, you got the paper bombs together, threw them high up and then you probably detonated them."

"Hai. Along those lines. But awesome light-show, right?"

Kakashi eye depicted an emotion; that of worry. "Naruto. You killed someone. Don't you feel any remorse? Regret?"

"Remorse. Yes."

Kakashi sighed in relief, thankful to know that the boy hasn't killed his emotions.

"I'm remorseful to know that this human trafficking has been going on for six months. I'm sorry for these people." He pointed around the miners in a sweeping motion. "But I don't regret killing this guy. Do you know how much suffering that these people went through? Not only were they slaves to this man, he underfed them, overworked them, punished them by breaking bones, stabbing… him-" he pointed at a man who was sleeping against a tree trunk. "And murdered their friends and then had the gall to threaten to kill three hundred people of Kimyō Town? So feeling 'remorse' for killing him? Not a chance in hell."

"You've taken a life. You're only thirteen."

"You became anbu captain at what? Thirteen, fourteen? How many have you killed, even before you got that promotion when you killed many with raiton assassination techniques? Dozens? What a hypocrite."

"Naruto! You've killed a human being!" Kakashi nearly yelled.

"Human being! He was nothing but swine dressed in the flesh of a man!"

All the others who were listening held different sides. The miners and ninja being separate, mostly.

"Hell yeah, Naruto!" Midori cheered. "At least now I can sleep better at night. By the way, uh, where's Sato?"

"His head is in the other bag." The boy said offhandedly.

The miners cheered. And then all sides started arguing about Naruto's deeds. It was predictable, actually; mainly that of the miners who defended him versus the ninja who disapproved. Naruto didn't care though. He merely created a clone to stand watch over him while he went to sleep in a quiet corner, keeping to himself. 'Fighting an elite jounin sure takes a lot out of you,' was his last conscious thought.

 **The next morning, 8 a.m.**

He knocked sharply at the door and waited. He looked around and saw everyone standing around impatiently. The boy didn't mind. He just needed to discuss some things before they took off.

The door opened. Kinkou beamed when he saw his guest. "Ah, Naruto-san, come in! Come in!" he opened the door wider to let Naruto inside which the boy did gratefully. It felt as if everyone behind him was staring holes into his back. He bowed his head and shoulders to the mayor who acknowledged the gesture. "Ohayou-Kinkou-sama."

"None of those formalities with me, young man! You have done so much for us that I feel as if we should call **you** sama."

The boy nodded his head. "Kinkou-san. We'll be leaving shortly. I'm sure you know all the details but there are some things that you do not know."

The man frowned. "Which is…?"

"Yesterday after I rescued those from the mine, I created clones of myself to take food from the then-desolate town to feed them. I wish to pay restitution-"

"That is unnecessary, Naruto-san. I'll tell the people myself so they'll know. Anything else?"

"I will be collecting bounty on the brothers. I wish for you to house them as guests in Kimyō until I send back money to aid them financially. I am told that they hail from a destitute place and I wish to help in any way I can. I'll pay for their boarding, of course."

"How many of them are there?"

"Twenty-three."

"For how long?" the mayor started to jot the info down to a small piece of paper.

"Two days. Four at the most."

"That shouldn't be a problem. I'll request for the innkeeper to entertain them for half price for four days. My veto power can only go so far, you know."

"That's still more than I hoped for. Arigatou."

"Douitashimashite."

Naruto nodded to the man before leaving the building. He walked over to the waiting former miners and ninja. "Well?" Midori asked.

He smiled. "He says you can stay for four days for half price."

"Half price? Four days? We have no money."

"Don't worry. When the money comes in, you should be able to pay easily and have a huge surplus. So don't worry."

Midori knelt on one knee and brought the boy into her arms and hugged him closely. "Thank you so much, Naruto-san. Kami bless you."

"Yeah. I hope so too."

The other former miners chuckled. Midori choked up a little in poignancy of the situation. A small tear welled up and she kissed the boy on the cheek. "We'll never forget."

"Damn right!" The formerly stabbed man outright yelled. He strode up to the now released boy and shook his hand vigorously. "A fish bone, huh?"

The boy laughed. "I have a lot of experience making do with what I've got."

It went on for a bit longer before Naruto left them for the last time to make his way to the ninja who were at the town's borders. He counted them off in his head as he saw them. 'Iruka Umino. Ko Hyuuga. Kurenai Yuhi. Kakashi Hatake.'

"Let us be on our way Uzumaki-san." Ko stated simply.

Naruto nodded in the affirmative before he leapt up to the tree next the group. He gestured his hands in a sweeping motion over the trees, hoping that his fellow leaf nin would take the hint instead of walking. Thankfully, they did and soon, they were ninja dashing through the trees. The journey was silent and frankly, Naruto wouldn't have it any other way.

 **One Journey later, At Konoha's gates.**

They two 'eternal' chunin Izumo and Kotetsu checked off the civilian's goods in the cart. "That's the last one. The cart's clean." Izumo announced. He dipped the quill feather onto the ink jar close by and wrote the civilian's name before ticking. "Let him by, Kotetsu."

Kotetsu nodded before gesturing to the merchant who stood beside him. "You may enter, sir."

The man thanked the chunin graciously before making his oxen pull the heavy cart into the village. It was in the direction of the open-air market, was what the two chunin guessed.

After five minutes have flown while they guarded, they saw four ninja in leaf flak jackets and a boy in a dark outfit jump out of the tree line and jogged to the gate a bit leisurely.

"Halt!" Izumo called out. "Kakashi-san? Kurenai-san? Back already?" The man welcomed.

The cell reached the gate, sweating lightly. "Back from a mission to Kimyō town. You should see the mission under my name," the masked jounin eye smiled.

Kotetsu looked through the mission log, searching for the day before. 'Hatake, Hatake.' "Ah, here it is. Kakashi Hatake and Kurenai Yuhi." The chunin checked them off. "Now what about you Iruka?"

Iruka shrugged slightly. "It's filed under Ko Hyuuga. It should be under yesterday too."

Kotetsu found Ko's name just before Kakashi's name. "Yeah here it is. But it says Taem Daed left with you too. Where is he?"

"He's dead." Ko stated evenly.

"Oh… my condolences." Izumo replied, having overheard what was being said.

"Uh, yeah. Me too. So what about the Uzumaki? He checked in yesterday and hasn't left the village since so how is he entering now?" Kotetsu queried curiously.

"HE never came in yesterday. What you saw was his shadow clone." Kurenai said, glaring at the blond. "I'll vouch for him to enter today."

"Well… shit. It doesn't work that way, Kurenai. He can't enter. We'll get into trouble. You're going to need some permission or a vouch from the high ups, preferably someone on the council or the hokage himself."

Iruka placed his hands out in a placating gesture. "Well, let me just get Hokage-sama's permission. It won't take long. Promise." The chunin proceeded to shunshin to the The Fire Shadow's office. About three minutes later, he returned with a 'Request Granted' slip with the hokage's seal on it. The chunin guard accepted it and let the whole party inside through the massive gates. That was when Izumo noticed the two bags Naruto had strapped to his back.

"Hold on. Naruto, what's in the bags?"

"Heads," he said dryly before turning his back again.

"What the hell?"

Kakashi sighed. "He means what he says. He's on his way to the bounty station."

The chunin nodded, having his questions answered. All of the entering ninja all started walking again.

"Naruto."

"Hai, Iruka-san?"

"Sarutobi-sama's pissed."

Naruto sighed. He thought as much. He quickly created a clone before giving it the bags. "Collect their bounties. And make sure they give you the full amount." 'Ask the library clones mentally how much their bounties are.'

The clone nodded before he sped-walked away.

"Alright everyone. Let's go see the Hokage." Kakashi suggested as an order. "We have much to tell and the sooner we start, the sooner we can go about our daily lives. Body-flicker."

The four ninja body-flickered in a puff of smoke to the Sandaime's office.

 **With The Hokage**

Hiruzen was upset. What the hell was Naruto thinking? There had better be a damn good explanation as to why he was out of the village. No, it had better be perfect! He stamped the papers on his desk with more 'oomph' than necessary. 'They'll be here soon. I don't want any distractions.'

He yelled to the secretary downstairs, ensuring that his voice would carry. "Lakurah, postpone all appointments for the next two hours! I do not wish to be disturbed!"

He heard a muffled 'Hai' from downstairs and the old man nodded in satisfaction. 'Any minute now.'

There were five separate puffs of smoke that came into being in his office just before his desk. He saw his two elite jounin, two chunin and one genin appearing from the fading smoke.

"Mission accomplished, Hokage-sama." Kakashi announced. "Not that we had to do anything anyway." He eye-smiled, trying to lighten the mood he saw his superior exuding.

"What? Hatake, I need you to clarify. And please explain, all that you know and all that has happened." He leveled his gaze over the five of them. "All of you."

"Well. Let me go first." Ko suggested. "I was present for almost all that transpired."

"Please do."

The Hyuuga branch member elaborated on all that he knew, while Naruto rehearsed what he would say in his head. Kurama was giving him some tips on what he should say and what he shouldn't tell, mainly editing around the fact that he could communicate with the clones telepathically through the seal.. He had to find a way to lie but hiding it in such a way to fool his own body and mind that it was a half truth; basically the truth. Soon, Ko was finished and Kakashi gave his small version, seeing as they were late to the action with Kurenai reaffirming what he said. Iruka explained what he knew right up until he fell unconscious and how Naruto healed him. He was stopped here by the Hokage.

" _Naruto_ healed you?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

"I'll press on into the matter when it is his time to speak." His stern gaze wandered to meet Naruto's own. The boy held it without faltering. If he could learn to be tolerant of a biju's Killing Intent, he could stare with the hokage!

The hokage closed his eyes and took out his pipe and began to smoke. "Continue, Iruka-san."

The chunin finished up until they returned this morning before Hiruzen stopped him for the last time. "That's enough. Naruto, it is your turn."

The blond stepped forward. "Where shall I start to explain?"

"When Team 8 left you behind."

"Of course. I was out in a field meditating."

"Because?"

"It's relaxing and it helps me to plan my moves better." Naruto didn't mention that this was his primary reason. It was merely a perk of entering the seal/mindscape. As of consequence, his eyes didn't wander in a way a liar's would. The hokage took that as the truth, although it was only half of a complete one.

"After team 8 left with my shadow clone, I believed it would be an excellent starter move to explore the possibilities of what the nukenin were after so I could find answers or a solution to the problem. I had some clones who located where the tunnel entrance was located and I discovered that one tunnel would lead to the aquifer but I found another one that descended like a well to another location. I went down this one with the aid of a few clones. Finally, the well leveled out into something I could walk in safely so I traversed here slowly. Along the way, I found several corpses that were half exposed. I turned away and continued. I also found the remains of Tonikkuwōtā trees and that convinced me that I was on the right path. About five minutes more of walking I found a large cavern that was inhabited by the _victims_ of human trafficking-" He heavily stressed the word 'victims'. "And by using medical techniques, I was able to aid them."

"Ko informed me that you sewed a man up. The man was stabbed in the…" he looked to the Hyuuga who finished his sentence.

"Kidney."

"Hai. Kidney. You healed the man's wound and then you sewed him up. With what instrument?"

"I used a fish bone, and thread from my own clothing."

The Sandaime puffed more on his pipe in contemplation. "This sounds unviable in medical practice. Unsanitary and unorthodox."

"I used flames to purge whatever germs or lingering bacteria that were on the bone. The thread was taken from just on the inside of my sleeve, one of the cleanest places on my person. I worked with what I had on hand. I also corrected myself on his treatment when we got back into Kimyō."

"Seems reasonable. But where did you learn medical techniques?"

'Oh shit. What to say, what to say?!'

" **You learnt from books."** The Kitsune said from inside the seal. **"Sounds as close to the truth as you can dare."**

"I learnt about the practice from medical books." He stated clearly, carefully phrasing his sentence.

"From where?"

"The Library."

"I did not know that we had such books in the library."

"I have spent enough time in the library to know that it is rarely visited. Everyone, mainly those around my age up until twenty would rather learn destructive techniques than just to read regular literature in the civilian library. So the jutsu vault is more frequented."

The hokage nodded. 'That makes sense. Continue."

'Arigatou Kurama.' "After I used my clones to help heal all the miners, we came back out of the tunnel system, but not before reburying the dead that the burrowing creatures of underground had unearthed. After exiting, I sent clones to fetch food and water for them. That was when I left clones to guard them when I went to left to take on Shita. I was sure that he was fighting Ko-san, Iruka-san and _Daed_ ," he barely contained his scorn for the man, and the hokage understood the reason perfectly.

"And then I saw Iruka about to be knocked out by Shita, I quickly made a clone who substituted with him. It was then I created another to heal his injuries that he received. When time was found inefficient, I told the clone to retreat with him and give him further medical aid before I went into the fray. I created twelve clones, half of which I had henge into Iruka-sensei to give the impression on Shita that he was still fighting."

"And pray tell what made you think that you take on a jounin and live?"

Naruto chuckled a bit. "I lived."

The Hokage gave the boy a stern glare but he was not intimidated. 'Well jiji, you wanted my answer. Here it is.'

"After being informed of a certain tenant who is a chakra powerhouse, one I myself was kept in the dark about all this time, it certainly does wonders for one's confidence. _Doesn't it_?" He intoned in a condescending manner.

The old man broke down inside when he heard his surrogate grandson's reply. But he held it behind his steeled façade. "I…see. Continue."

"It was then that I started to fight… do I have to into all details now? After all, Ko spoke about this already in detail."

"No. It won't be necessary. But I will need a written document of the fighting details. _All details_. Please continue when Ko exited the fight."

After I saw the man about to recreate the mud mire technique that was first used on team 8, I created twenty four Iwa bunshins with lesser chakra than usual and had them use the **Chika Hira** to retrieve all the paper-bomb tags. I remained on top to occupy Shita's attention by walking on top of it as well as taunting him so he would use more chakra in the technique. He then consumed a bunch of Tonikkuwōtā leaves-"

"This is not the first I am hearing about the leaves. What are their purposes and uses?"

"Let me answer that, Hokage-sama." Kurenai stated. "Naruto had revealed to us that the leaves had natural chakra in them. Albeit the amount is small, it is very potent and it has the side effect of accumulative poisoning. Naruto also said that the miners told him that Sato used to give them the leaves as tea to put out more work effort."

"How did he find out about the natural chakra attribute, Kurenai-san?" The old man was curious. He looked over to Naruto who patted his belly lightly. He caught the hint and nodded. "Never mind. Naruto, continue."

"After he ate the leaves, his chakra flared visibly and he used a massive amount of chakra in the technique and I could actually see the ground glow a faint blue. It was then I killed him by throwing my tanto at his head and it caught him in the crown-" he ran his hand across his head to show where the incision was on the nukenin. The jutsu ceased and my clones came back up with the tags, all balled up and covered with mud that was laced with Shita's chakra."

"…" (x5 people)

"That… was brilliant thinking. You knew the tags wouldn't go off because of Shita's chakra proximity and the fact that the chakra in your clones were low. What next?" Hiruzen asked almost eagerly.

"I had them pool the tags into a bag I fashioned out of Shit's shirt, put some more mud inside and then I created a kage bunshin, a katon bunshin and two futon bunshins. We then did a collaboration technique. The shadow clone threw bag as hard as he could into the sky, then the futon clones and myself used simultaneous **Great Breakthrough** 's to make it go higher-"

"And the katon clone did a fire jutsu, which more than likely was **Gokakyuu no jutsu** which detonated the tags while they were midair." The hokage finished. "I could hear the explosion and from where I was standing on the Hokage Tower, I could see it as well."

"Then I enlisted the help of a katon clone to help me decapitate Shita for the bounty. While I created another bag out of the man's pants-"

Kakashi actually chuckled a little, despite himself.

"While the clone took off his head and burnt around his neck and head wound to stop the bleeding then it burnt his body. It was then I finished and the clone placed the head in the bag and dispelled. I then went back to the tunnel entrance to hunt for Sato's body. When I found him, I repeated the action before I shunshinned back to the miner's location."

"Cease. That is all I need to know from the report before all of yours merge. I still require written reports from all of you in three days."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." (x5)

"Now. There is the matter of Naruto himself who was disobedient, even though his actions had brought about a resounding success in the mission."

The blond frowned. 'Punishment.'

" **Seems like it."** The great fox remarked.

"From all accounts, for Uzumaki Naruto, there has been two counts of insubordination."

"He listened to me, Hokage-sama!" Umino interjected. "I had been speaking to his clone and the clone listened."

"Hey, hey. No need to worry, Iruka-nii," Naruto said. "Just… let it go."

The hokage nodded curtly while Iruka fell silent. 'Why isn't Naruto defending himself?' the scarred chunin thought.

"He was told to return by his sensei, Kurenai Yuhi to return to the village because of mission complications. He was also ordered to guard the mayor by Iruka Umino. Naruto, what say you?" The god of the shinobi seemed to have switched roles to a judge.

"They're orders given to my clones. Not to me."

"While an interesting way to shirk punishments and orders, this cannot stand. Naruto, do you know how long a punishment for insubordination lasts?"

"Three months punishment leave from ninja duties without pay." He replied clearly.

"Uzumaki Naruto, for two counts of insubordination, you will be sentenced for three months without pay. You are being given a half reduction leniency due to the fact that you had a very large role to play in the mission's success. I'll need your forehead protector and ninja license, and your punishment is effective immediately," Hiruzen orderedwith a hint of sadness in his voice.

Naruto turned his back on everyone slightly and removed his headband. No one could see his face as he did the action. As they all saw him remove it and hold it with his left hand, he pulled over his hood over his head. (Hiding his forehead, mind you.) He turned back around but his face was now shadowed. They all watched him stride to Iruka slowly.

"Here. Your hitai ate, Iruka-sensei." He held out the head band to his former teacher.

The chunin nearly had to choke back a sob as he took it from him. The hokage didn't bother to stress that it was **he** that was supposed to take it. After all, he was present when the man had given it to Naruto that night.

Naruto then took his ninja lisecence from a string around his neck, detached it and walked forward to give it to the hokage. He dropped it into the man's waiting palm and backpedaled to his standing place.

Naruto sighed deeply as he heard the man start to speak again. "None the less, you will still be paid for an A rank mission done. Your check will be presented to you by the secretary as Ko and Iruka. Kurenai retreated for the earlier C rank turned A so she will only be given a fraction. Kakashi will also be given a small fraction. Naruto, don't let this happen again or you will not be shown any clemency. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal clear, Hokage-sama."

"You are all dismissed."

They all walked out through the door, Naruto last. The boy did not spare a single backwards glance as he slowly shut the door behind him.

 **With Naruto, one hour later.**

The boy entered his apartment only to find that the shadow clone he had sent out earlier with the bounty had already arrived. He plopped himself unto his bed and heaved a sigh.

"That went well."

" **Just let it be."** Kurama said slowly before his voice faded.

The kage bunshin walked up to him and smirked. "Hey."

"What?"

"Each brother had three hundred and fifty thousand bounties."

"That's awesome". He yawned deeply. "I'll sort it out in the morning. It's gonna be a long three month's." he rolled unto his side and kicked off his sandals off his feet to the floor. Ninja equipment followed soon after. The kage bunshin just watched his creator go to sleep before he dispelled himself.

 **Somewhere, in total darkness.**

A figure of someone sat in a lotus position with his hands in an upside down bird handseal. There was utter silence as the person seemingly meditated in peace; his mind cleared.

He exhaled sharply and opened cerulean orbs. He gathered his wits as he became more lucid.

"Ninja license revoked, huh?"

" **Hai. For three months. What are you going to do?"** a voice in his mind said.

"We'll worry about my revoked ninja status later. But for now, I'm gonna do what we came here to do. We're here to create **The Tenacious Thirteen**!"

" **Very well. How will you create them?"** Kurama asked.

"I've been thinking about that. It's really simple, actually."

" **How? They need to last, they need to be durable and they need to be able to regenerate their own chakra. Furthermore, they'll need substantial chakra reserves."** The Kitsune pressed.

The boy created a katon bunshin who then in turn created a small fire jutsu for light. In the dim lighting, one could see Naruto with his now usual attire but his hood was down, revealing his green goggles that was placed on his forehead. The boy closed his eyes in deep thought. They were standing in the aquifer, surrounded by stalagmites.

'You said that your version of clones made with pure youki would look like a feral version of you. They are also extremely durable. Correct?'

" **Hai."**

'I, as a being have yin and yang inside me. Yin which is considered evil, dark and passive, earth. Yang which is considered good, light and active, heaven. All beings have chakra which is composed of yang energy, and physical energy. Everything else is not important. What we need, are layers."

"… **Layers?"** The fox was a bit confused.

"To create their own chakra, they'll need pure yang. They can get physical energy properties for chakra from eating. They will be like living, breathing people. But they will be exactly like me." He spoke out loud. The fire bunshin merely looked on.

" **My youki will make them appear monstrous."**

"Let me explain. They will have chakra coils. However the coils will be made entirely out of my chakra. In the centre of the coils will be pure yang energy. There will be a small fraction of yin energy to ensure some stability. But where looking at around ninety percent yang and ten percent yin. The structure of the clones will be made with pure youki. They will be extremely durable. The yin and yang itself will recreate organs over time. That is what I believe; mainly because you just make clones with chakra only we don't use yin energy."

" **Interesting theory. Are you sure it will work?"**

"I'm sure it will work. But now, please continue to slowly refill my reserves. The shadow clone I sent to Konoha was given a huge amount of chakra during creation. I mean, I used about ninety five percent of my entire reserves in it! That's enough to last it at _least_ three months!"

" **I have been filling it slowly and it's going to take at least a day to replenish; I can only convert my chakra into yours so quickly. Have you tried eating any of the Tonikkuwōtā leaves you found when you came back down here? Perhaps they would prove more efficient."**

The boy shrugged before removing around twenty ( _he_ didn't know the number. Only _we_ know.) of said withered looking leaves from his pocket. Without even batting an eyelash, he put them in his mouth and ate them quickly without bothering to taste it. it was one taste he could certainly live without. Not even three seconds had passed before Naruto felt his inside pulse in answer to what he had just taken. It felt as if he wanted to vomit but at the same time, he felt powerful. Even more than the jinchuriki feral state but it was only slightly. He felt his reserves fill up quickly, but he wasn't too surprised.

" **Oh fuck!"** Kurama shouted in alarm.

"What? What's wrong?!" he yelled the question.

" **The natural chakra is filling your reserves too fast. I was still refilling your chakra but he leaves are making it too much!"**

"And the problem is?" the boy calmed down visibly.

" **If it continues at this rate, It'll rupture your chakra coils when they fill over capacity. And you'll die as if you were a fucking Bunshin Daibakuha!"**

"Gah! Shit! Can't you reduce the chakra or something? Maybe I can vomit the leaves out?!" Naruto started panicking.

" **Vomiting won't work. The chakra was already pulled from the leaves and absorbed by your body."**

"Can't you make my… uh… make my coils bigger or something to contain it?" He tried to force his heart rate back under control.

"… **I… can! I can make your coils bigger. But your chakra control will be shot."**

"Do it!"

He felt his insides pulse inside him, all of his body felt as if it were trying to collide with itself. His stomach suddenly burned with a fiery pain and he collapsed to his knees, before he fell unto his chest on the cavern's floor. He clutched at his stomach while tears start to well up in his stomach, wishing for the severe pain to go away. But in a strange twist of fate, his fire bunshin walked up to his prostrate form and mercifully knocked him out with a cuff to the back of his head, sending him into the bliss of painless unconsciousness.

 **And that's chapter 18. I tried to put everyone in a sensible light for a change and I think I pulled it off well. For example, the chunin gate guards act more like guards instead of being the brunt of a joke usually seen in fanfiction. ( I wish something would happen, I'm so bored- is a prime example. Then someone important comes or something we all knew would happen.) I also felt that Naruto got off easy from his shenanigans too often but I tried to make it so the Sandaime was a bit merciful, seeing how the Naruto's role bought about success in the mission. Besides, I don't want to write fics that are too idealistic. So next time is the chapter most of you have been waiting for.**

 _ **The Tenacious Thirteen are born.**_

 **Until next time. (By the way, I still need reviews. Reviews equal encouragement. Encouragement equals faster updates. You're gonna want that cause I put out two new fics recently. My time will be divided up. One is a time story, Naruto/Kin, the other is in the shippuden era, Naruto/Matsuri).**

 **(Revised: Now, I have Breaking Limits, Living Twice, Territory, Omniscience, Lassoed with a Rope-Dart… all of which are in progress. The** _ **Ultimatum**_ **one-shots are and will be a series of original ideas. Feel free to check them out. Thanks if you do, too bad of you don't.)**

 **Sayonara.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Breaking Limits:**

 **The Tenacious Thirteen**

 **I'm back again with the latest chapter and I hope you'll enjoy it. As of last chapter, I realized that I had left my original plot holes unfilled for too long. I decided to kill both birds with one sto… with one** _ **shot**_ **to bring some things to light.**

 **Disclaimer:** _ **I don't-don't-don't-don't-don't**_ **… (Punches the voice recorder in frustration.) MR4TW: Damn recording got stuck! (Groans in effort to try and fix it.) Ah! There we go. All better! Let's try this again!**

 _ **I don't own Naruto.**_

 **MR4TW: I really gotta get a new voice recorder. This one's been saying the same thing too many times.**

 **19.**

 _He opened his dilapidated door and stepped inside his home. He kicked his sandals off to the side and made a beeline for his bathroom. He had just eaten a lot of ramen with the old man. He barely made it to the toilet before he relieved himself. Sighing in contentment, he tried to flush but no water came rushing in to get rid of the filth._

" _Wha…? Where's the water?" The six year old asked himself._

 _He didn't expect to hear an answer but something inside his shirt started to glow a bright white. It baffled him as he pulled down his neck and reached inside it before grasping the lambent object. When he removed it, he saw that it was his necklace. He had thought that it was glowing a little when he woke up earlier but he had assumed_ _that it was the sunlight shining on it but now, it was absolutely radiant._

" _Wha…?" The little boy froze when he realized that it was only wood. Wood did_ _ **not**_ _light up like this. Suddenly, he felt tired, more exhausted than he had ever felt. He suddenly fell to one knee in his moment of weakness. He got back to both feet and stumbled, making his way to his bed. The room seemed to spin around him, disorienting him. He walked in zigzag lines but he collapsed in a heap on the ground, slipping into unconsciousness._

 _He seemed to wake up again immediately but his surroundings had changed to that of a flooded area that was criss-crossed with pipes that dripped noisily. He realized that he now felt a lot better but he knew not why he was here in this…place._

' _Wasn't I at home just now?'_

 _He got to his feet and started walking. He didn't know where he was going but he felt as if he was being…called, even though he wasn't hearing anything besides the dripping._

 _After walking for what felt like half an hour, he found himself in a massive place that had immensely large bars that went right up to the ceiling. He approached it so he could see if anything on the other side. As he ran his hand over it, a large almond-shaped bloodshot eye opened right in front of him, startling him so badly that he fell unto his butt in the water, letting out a yelp._

 _Another eye opened on the other side of the first one before both blinked. They then leveled a terrifying gaze at the boy. He would have shat himself in fright, if only he hadn't already done so at home._

 _A large toothy grin unfurled just below the eyes before they slightly separated, dripping saliva unto the muzzle._

" _ **But you are at home. You never left."**_ _The mouth somehow spoke human speech without all the necessary movements._

 _The boy scooted backwards quickly, still on his butt. He stared in fear at the terrifying face._

" _What are you?" he quivered._

" _ **Who**_ _ **am I."**_ _The voice corrected. The face rose up to the top of the bars into the light. The boy saw that it was a massive fox, one that had seen in lore, one that he had seen in a book somewhere…_

" _The Kyuubi!" He shrieked. He was about to get to his feet and run screaming bloody murder when the fox laughed. It wasn't condescending. If anything, it sounded…amused?_

" _ **Heh-heh. I still got it. I strike the fear of the gods into mortal souls."**_ _It sat on its great haunches before it crossed it's arms across the chest._ _ **"I am not a 'what'. I am a 'the'. As in, THE NINE-TAILS!"**_ _It's voice boomed across the open space._

 _The boy was now frightened stock-still as he stared at the massive demon fox. His young mind raced as he head stories of how it could swing it's tail and destroy mountains or cause a tidal wave. How it could…_

" _ **Aren't you going to introduce yourself?"**_

 _The six year old blinked in confusion. "Uh. N-Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki." He whimpered._

" _ **A pleasure. Now stand up. I'm not going to kill you, you know."**_

 _Naruto did as he was told, still scared. It was obvious, what with the boy shaking so much._

" _ **Relax. So, fishcake, huh? Not the most intimidating name, brat."**_

 _Naruto actually forgot his fear for that moment, which was the Kyuubi's intention. "It's not 'fishcake'! My name means 'Maelstrom'. And don't call me a brat, Mr. Kyuubi!"_

 _The kitsune sweat-dropped for a second._ _ **'Mister?' "I see...and how do you know that?"**_

" _Hokage-jiji told me!" He yelled at the Kyuubi._

" _ **Fine, fine. You can get to call yourself 'maelstrom.'"**_

 _The boy turned up his nose and pouted in a way only a six year old could. "That's right. So, uh, Mr. Kyuubi?"_

" _ **Hai?"**_

" _Why are you here?"_

"… _ **I…this is my… jail."**_

" _Jail?"_

" _ **It's where you send bad people to become good people."**_ _It wasn't as clean cut as that, but that's all the little boy needed to know so he could understand._

" _So you're a bad person?!" the boy started backpedaling in fear again._

" _ **No, no. I'm…good now.**_ _ **I'm not 'bad' anymore."**_

 _The boy calmed down. "Oh! So if you're good now, someone will let ya out now?"_

 _The fox was at a loss for words for a total of half a minute. The boy was about to repeat his question when he finally answered._ _ **"The person who locked me up is dead. He can no longer release me."**_

" _Oh." The boy looked thoughtful for a minute before his expression brightened. "What if I did it for you?" He said hopefully. "After all, you said that you're good now, right?"_

"…" _The Kyuubi could not believe it. Here was his chance to escape, given to him on a silver platter. He could be free…_

 _The gears turned slowly._ _ **"Free? Free to go where? Free to do what? There is nowhere I can go, nothing I can do that will guarantee that I will be left in peace."**_ _He said to himself. Due to his size, however, Naruto still heard him._

" _ **I would be sought after to be sealed again. And my so called 'release' would kill you, Naruto. Would you do that for me? Would you release me even though you would die?"**_ _The fox asked him._

"… _I don't know what 'sealed' means but if you get to be free from here, sure! Besides…" His face darkened. "Maybe the village love would you more than they love me."_

 _The demon Kitsune had heard enough. The boy was as pure as a saint could get. Even if he were as misinformed as he was naive._ _ **"No… I'll stay. I'll stay so you can live. Besides, they hate me. Not you."**_

" _Huh?"_

" _ **I am in… you, Naruto Uzumaki. You are my jail. I have been locked away inside you ever since you were born. Because I'm in you, they hate you. Do you understand?"**_ _The nine-tails said to him in question._

 _The boy's mind temporarily came to a standstill, thinking about what the woman was shouting at him was about to say. Why they glared at him, why they called him 'demon'. But right now…_

"… _I don't care. Besides, why do you have to live like…this? With all this…smelly water and darkness?"_

" _ **My living conditions can be improved if you were to imagine it. This is all in your mind. It's called a mindscape."**_

 _The boy looked up to his forehead before squinting, trying to imagine somewhere more…inhabitable._

 _The nine tails realized what the boy was doing and motioned him to stop._ _ **"Wait. Don't do it yet. While I want to have this, I don't like to feel indebted obligation to anyone."**_

 _Naruto stopped his efforts and looked up. "Huh? What does that mean?"_

" _ **It means that I don't like to owe people. Tell you what, I'll do one hundred favors for you then you can help me with the mindscape."**_

" _Sure! But why?"_

" _ **Because nothing is free."**_

He suddenly came to, seeing nothing but pitch black. He opened his eyes to still see the same. He blinked but he found that he could see nothing at all.

" **You're in the aquifer below Kimyō Town. You're not blind."** A rumbling voice said in his thoughts.

"…Wha…? Kurama? What happened?"

" **Don't you remember?"** The Kyuubi sounded surprised.

"I'm trying to but my head hurts every time I try." His head throbbed painfully as he tried to recall events. "Ugh."

" **Let me just get that…"** The pain started to ebb away. **"…For you. Better?"** The demon fox asked.

"Yeah." He mentally tried to remember his final moments before falling unconscious. "You expanded my coils and…pain… lots and lots of pain. And my fire clone knocked me out. Good thing too, it kept me from suffering from the...damn."

" **Hmm. So create another clone, preferably another katon clone. You can get the light and see how far gone your chakra control is, all in one action."**

The Uzumaki mentally nodded as he formed the necessary hand sign. " **Katon bunshin no jutsu**!"

A ball of fire came into being beside him that expanded and took his shape before it assumed his image. The clone recreated the small flame technique in it's palm but it quickly flared out of control and engulfed the clone.

 **AN - (For the sake of description, let's just say the clone looked like The Human Torch from Fantastic Four.)**

The clone dispersed in flames that soon burned out of existence, having nothing to latch unto that could fuel it.

"Well…damn."

" **Indeed."**

Naruto fell into a squat before he assumed his meditative stance. 'Gotta think. My output control's shot to hell and I can't afford to do much more chakra control exercises. I need to know. Kurama, how was my control before today?'

"… **Hmm… If I had to give a rating, I would say low chunin control over mid to high jounin reserves."**

'And now?'

" **Genin control over mid kage reserves."**

He sighed mentally. 'W-wait a minute! While I was reading the first morning I went to school with my abilities on, the book I read described that chakra coils were like bottles.'

" **Bottles?"** Kurama didn't know what to make of that.

'Yeah. Bottles. You keep your chakra in coils, like water in a bottle. You get your chakra through the exit of the coil like how you would pour the water from the bottle.'

" **What does that parallel analogy have to do with any of this?"**

'When shinobi perform chakra control exercises, they are training their ability to manipulate how large and small the chakra exit is. Like the neck of a bottle. Right now, my 'neck' opening is huge so that's why my control is down, when I used to able to manipulate it a little, putting out chakra in the required amounts.'

The Kyuubi grew excited as he understood. **"I see now! So you want me to try and 'shrink' your capacity to fit your purposes. You could acquire perfect control-"**

"Hold on. You can't just lessen my capacity willy-nilly. I only need it at my previous level. I'll have to try and train it as I go."

" **What? You could have your chakra 'neck' down to a size that could allow even a single bunshin creation. Don't you want that kind of control?"**

"You have to remember. I can only manipulate my 'neck' a little. If it's so small that I can create bunshins, how am I going to be able to make it big enough to perform jutsu that require large outputs of chakra?"

" **I get it."**

"Remember when I couldn't stand on Shita's jutsu? If my chakra output was larger, I would have been able to stand on it instead of constantly creating clones to stand on."

" **I said I get it!"**

"Fantastic. So my 'neck' grew with my capacity. I only need you to try and revert it back to 'normal'. Can you do that, Kurama?"

" **I suppose I could. It'll take some time and it'll probably hurt. Like your coils."** The Kyuubi stressed the last.

"Oh! Uh… don't start yet. Uhh, shit!" The boy quickly stood up and formed the modified handseal. " **Kage bunshin no jutsu**!"

He only meant to create one but five formed instead. **"What are you doing?"** The fox asked.

"Someone knock me out!"

"…"

One of the clones walked behind him. "Alright. Just keep looking forward. I'm gonna count to three, then I'm gonna knock you out. Simple."

Naruto gulped. The clone smirked as it started to count. "One…two…"

Naruto dropped like a rock in a slump, much to the clones' confusion. "Wha…?"

" **He could have just asked me. I know how his own body works better than he does."** A voice sounded in their heads.

'Oh.'

They looked at the 'boss', wondering what they could do.

"What do we do now?" one clone asked.

"Just disperse yourselves. Besides, it's pitch black." One said in the darkness before a 'poof' was heard.

The others followed suit, leaving Naruto alone on the ground. The Kyuubi inside the seal just gave a snort before it went to work.

 _The lad woke up in a daze, seeing the now-familiar white of the hospital ceiling. He had a feeling how he got here. But he knew one thing._

 _He didn't want to stay._

 _He sat up in the bed and ripped out the cords with the drips. He then kicked the binding sheets of his legs and hopped to the floor. The eight year old walked softly on the balls of his bare feet to the corner where his sandals were placed. He quickly slid them on and went to the door, which he opened silently before peeking out the corners to see if anyone was there._

 _There was none that he could see. He crept out of the hospital, avoiding the occasional nurse or doctor that chanced across his path before he ran home. Finally arriving, he opened it quickly before slamming the door and leaned against it, before he slid down and started to cry._

" _ **Hey, don't cry."**_

' _I… can't take anymore of this.' He felt over his eye where the skin had gotten split open the night before. 'Thanks for patching me up, though.'_

" _ **That's number 56."**_

' _Whatever.' He swiped at his tears before he steeled himself. 'I don't want to stay here.'_

 _The Kyuubi was unsure what the boy meant._ _ **"Oh… you mean this dump you call a home…?"**_

 _The boy stood up, face determined. 'No. I mean this_ _ **village**_ _I call a home. They beat on me, they cut me, they starve me, and they try to kill me!' He screamed mentally. 'I nearly got killed last night. That's the closest they've ever gotten.'_

' _Someone must've saved me before I got stabbed. Who was it?'_

 _The Kyuubi was silent._

' _It's not worth staying. I'll just run away!'_

" _ **It's probably going to be worse if you tried running away. Even on the slim chance you don't get caught leaving, where would you go?"**_

' _Anywhere is probably better than here!' The boy ran to his room and started throwing what few things he had into a backpack he had once been given by an anbu. He also packed his only change of clothes and undergarments and slung it over his shoulder. The boy would leave._

 _And nothing would stop him._

Naruto became fully conscious suddenly. Not wasting any time, he sat up and rubbed his head. "Kami, getting knocked unconscious cannot be good for my mental health." He reasoned out loud.

" **What mental health? You don't have one."**

"Kurama? Done?"

" **Done. Wasn't sure if I could do it, but I got it done. I'll be sure to collect what is owed by the end of the month."**

"Hold on, hold on. I know that nothing is free. But you've been living rent-free all my life. Let's just call it even for now."

" **I hate it when you play that card."** The fox grinned inside the cage before it chuckled. **"But let's get serious. Are you ready to create the clones for the group now?"**

"I can't create them to the specifications needed. You're going to have to do it. Besides, you're the only one who can manipulate your youki and channel pure Yin and Yang release that I have."

" **So I'm taking over?"**

"Yeah. It was going to happen again sooner or later." He reassumed his meditative stance and retreated to the grassland mindscape. He immediately saw the fox sitting under his tree, waiting on him so they could begin.

"Are you sure you remember all the details about the layers?"

" **Hai. We're looking at around 80% yang and 20% yin. That will be their core. That will be surrounded by your type of chakra coils. Which by the way, are now at kage level instead of jounin. Then the rest of their bodies will be made of my chakra, heavily laced with youki to make them durable. That's it?"**

"Well… yeah. But I just thought of something else."

" **Which is?"**

"The medic clone. His control has to be high for medical jutsus. Can you still create him with my current size reserves but with the chakra 'neck' of low chunin level? That way he can do the jutsu and train his ability to control his output later to be even better."

"… **It's going to be challenging but I'll try. Anything else?"**

"Yeah. I need my body back as soon as you're done. I don't need you drawing attention to our doings down here."

The fox sighed. **"Oh Kami. Do you really think so little of me?"**

The Uzumaki just shrugged before he held out his palm to the fox. The fox reciprocated the action by holding out a single finger/digit. Naruto touched the fox and started to release his willpower, while Kurama enforced his. Naruto's bright cerulean eyes faded into a full black, sclera and all. After another minute, a single dot of red showed up in the centre of each of his eyes.

On the outside, Naruto's eyes opened explosively, revealing slitted red eyes. His face became more feral as his whiskers deepened. His nails also grew to be akin to claws. His aura became extremely suffocating to be around, full of unrelenting hatred.

He leapt to his feet and grinned.

" **Well, let's get started, shall we?"**

 _He ran as fast as he could. There was only a single direction that he went in. when he had looked at the brochure attached to the map earlier, it said that the place had the 'friendliest' people. The Kyuubi had advised against it but nothing could dissuade him._

 _His breathing was soon reduced to panting but he continued none-the-less. His legs finally gave out on him and he stumbled, falling heavily. He reluctantly crawled to the foot of the tree to rest. Before he knew it, he had fallen asleep._

 _The demon fox inside the seal didn't know what to do. On one hand, he didn't think the boy should leave. Ninja from his village would hunt him down like a wild animal and bring him back. If he had stayed, he would still have been set upon by his fellow villages and he would be no better off._

 _All of his efforts to leave would have been for nothing._

 _The Nine-tails made up his mind to help him. He let his_ _ **influence**_ _out of the cage in tiny amounts, as in order to not agitate the seal. His black youki seeped into the boy's system, but the effects were noticeable. His claws grew and his whiskers became more pronounced. Without even opening his eyes, the 'sleeping' boy formed a modified tiger handseal (ring finger and pinkie folded inwards instead of the outside), then the modified hare handseal (curled fingers were uncurled instead) then the modified dragon handseal. (Index fingers stuck out in addition to thumbs and pinkies.)_

" _ **Youki bunshin no jutsu**_ _." He whispered._

 _He closed his fist and reopened it to reveal a black ball which dropped to the ground. He repeated the modified dragon handseal and almost all of the boy's chakra left him from his finger-tips and was absorbed by the pebble sized youki. In a puff of smoke, a clone of the boy was formed. The only difference was that it possessed slitted red eyes that soon faded to perfect black, then to cerulean as the clone achieved chakra balance._

 _The clone knew it's purpose for it's creation. It started running back to the village to return, before it's original was missed. The fox inside the seal quickly recalled its influence back inside the seal, it's deed now done. Naruto woke up an hour later, and continued making his way to the land of Wave none the wiser. The Kyuubi decided that he would tell him when he got there though. At least this way, he could find peace._

Kurama, possessing the Uzumaki, finished creating six of the shadow clones to the required specifications. It was agonizingly slow but he had all the time in the world. He now moved on to the clone that would be the medic. He sighed as he got started, creating the shadow clone handseal forming the bunshin. He then placed his palm over the unresponsive clone's stomach and started to inject some of the boy's yin and yang energy, right into the coils. It was incredibly difficult, but he wanted this group to come through, just as much as the boy he had watched grow up.

 _He finally arrived to the bank of an immense span of water, his journey cut short. He became greatly saddened as he started to think he would have to turn back and go home. He was almost about to cry when he heard a voice call out to him._

" _Hey there, little guy! What are you doing out here?"_

 _He looked around almost frantically, searching for the voice. His eyes finally settled on a man sitting on a large boulder overlooking the river._

 _The man was fishing._

 _That much was obvious when he saw him in the process of casting a line out into the water. The man turned back to the boy and smiled brightly. "What's th' matter, huh? Can't'cha say somethin'?"_

" _Uh… yeah! Hi mister!" The eight year old resumed his cheerful exuberance, one that Kurama usually saw the boy have when he was around the Sandaime hokage._

" _Hi yourself. So what are you doing out here? Aren't you far from home?"_

 _The boy's happy expression shattered like glass. "I ran away from home."_

" _What? Don't you think you'll make your parents unhappy? Don't you think your mother'll cry?" the man questioned as he dropped from the rock and walked over to him. He was worried from him so he pressed on with the questions._

" _I don't really have any family mister. I'm an orphan." The boy looked down, finding his feet more interesting all of a sudden._

" _Oh! Uh, gomen. So why did you run away, huh?"_

" _People where I live regularly mistreat me. So I didn't want to stay."_

" _What?! What did they do?" the man asked angrily._

 _Naruto explained most of his plights to the man, who grew more worried and angry the more he heard. Naruto was never this trusting to a complete stranger but this was Wave country, and it paper said that it was the 'friendliest' place. He guessed that it was alright. Besides, the man seemed to genuinely care for him already._

 _When he was done with his explanation, the fisherman made up his mind to help the little boy as best as he could. But it was then that he realized something._

" _Say, little guy. What's your name?"_

" _My name's Naruto, mister!"_

" _Well, my name's Kaiza. Wadd'ya say we go to my house and get something to eat, huh?"_

 _The boy hugged the much taller man in his glee. Kaiza only chuckled as he patted the eight-year old's head as he went for his fishing things and dropped it in the boat that he had docked behind the boulder. Soon, they sailed across the water, Naruto finally smiling for the first time in a long time._

Kurama finished the Yin and Yang release and added the final touches by adding pure 'uncorrupted' youki to surround the clone's coils. When the clone got hits that would normally disperse them, the truth was that their coils got ruptured and collapsed on itself. With the extra 'youki' protection, these clones will be the epitome of fortitude.

The boy possessed by Kurama sighed. Now, he had to create the elemental chakra clones. His work was only half done. It would be a bit more tricky, converting the boy's chakra into the different elements. He would do his best, to make sure that each bunshin were perfect, nothing but immaculate perfection would be acceptable.

 _The boy fit right in with the family. They were kind to him and treated him as if he were one of their own. There was Tazuna-ojisan, Tsunami who was a mother figure, Kaiza who was like his father, and Inari, a five year old who was like a brother. Only Tazuna, Tsunami and Inari had passing resemblance but the other two males…_

 _They were surrogates._

 _Kaiza was like a stepfather but little Inari was adamant that he was his father now. Tsunami felt the same by saying he was her husband and Tazuna treated him like a son._

 _Naruto was simply a stray boy that Kaiza found._

 _The boy was still in an emaciated condition, ribs bulging out of his skin in horrifying detail. His whiskered cheeks were a bit sunken but what stories the boy had told had frightened them all. He had some scars to prove it after all._

 _And all the boy had was a single change of clothes and garments._

 _They straightaway took him under their roof and dressed him, fed him, cared for him and most importantly, loved him. It was then that the Kyuubi became convinced that he had made the right decision by helping him with the clone idea. He told the boy and the boy happily told him 'arigatou' and to put the favors number at '57'._

 _One day, he was about to throw away his bag, knowing that it reminded him too much of the village, while the anbu who gave him was nice to him, he wanted to cut his ties to him. He started searching through all the pockets, making sure it was all clean before the disposal._

 _He was going through it's last pocket when he found a small slip of paper neatly folded among all the dust collections in it. He could only wonder how long he could have missed seeing it until now. 'Probably since the day I got it.' he mused._

 _He unfolded it and started to read it:_

 _Naruto,_

 _You will want to become a shinobi soon. It's naturally the dream of all young boys of this village and I suspect that you will be no different. In the case that the day comes that you want to become a shinobi, I have sealed all the gear you will need. I wish for you to be fully prepared for when that day comes for I believe that a workman is nothing without his working tools._

 _Channel a little of your chakra into the seal to release the items. All you need will be inside._

 _I.U._

 _This was where the note ended and Naruto didn't know what to think. He had always believed that he would become a ninja, being partners with Kyuubi, seeing how he got special 'benefits' from him like advanced healing-_

" _ **I heard that, brat!"**_

 _The boy grinned. He really thought that he and the beast were like best friends. But he sometimes worried for the day that his family might find out about the monster fox. It gnawed at him, worrying that they would treat him the same as the villagers. And what about being Hokage! He had promised himself that he would become one. But he didn't want to be a ninja for the villagers who had mistreated him._

" _I know! I'll become a ninja here with this stuff, and when I'm good at it, then I'll become hokage, without having to be a ninja at the village! Perfect!" He started doing a little jig, one that only an eight year old was capable of. The Demon Kitsune didn't try to tell him that that was not how things worked. And why should he? Ignorance was bliss after all. Besides, he would find out when he grew older. Let him have his happiness now, when it mattered._

Kurama finished making the futon and suiton clones. They were the easiest of the five elementals to create, since Naruto's primary affinity was wind and his slight secondary was water. The last three would be a bit more difficult, seeing that those elemental chakras were far from Naruto's control. In fact, clones of this nature were the most taxing on his reserves to create.

But when they were done with these clones, the bunshins were going to _specialize_ in their respective fields.

 _Naruto went outside under a tree and sat down with it, reading it twice more. Following the instructions of the fox and the note, he placed a little of his chakra in the note and all of a sudden, things came flying out of the seal on the note in smoke. Because of the boy's inexperience, instead of removing the things from the seal one by one, they all flew out at once rapid-fire. They flew out uncontrollably, despite the boy's efforts to 'force' them back in. It was comical to watch but Naruto was_ _ **not**_ _laughing._

 _When it ceased, all of the items were scattered on the grass for the boy to see. He saw ninja sandals, new outfits, a medium sized blade in a brown sheathe. There were even two weapon pouches, one that was filled with shuriken, the other with kunai. He gathered all of the things together before he placed them neatly at the foot of the tree. As he regarded the area once more, he noticed a rather large white envelope. He strode to it and picked it up. There was no address or anything on it but it was obvious it was for him, seeing that it came out of the seal. He tore open the top with his fingernails and took out the contents, which were several sheets of paper, each with different contents._

 _The first one was another note:_

 _The paper with the word 'chakra' on it is chakra paper. Simply channel some of your chakra into it to find out your chakra elemental nature. If it's fire, it'll turn to ash. If it's water, it'll become soggy. If it is earth, it will turn to dust. If it's wind, it'll cut itself in half and lightening will cause it to wrinkle._

 _I don't know what your affinity is so I have included two techniques for each element. Although you may have an element or two, try to learn all of them. It is a valuable skill to be diverse and versatile._

 _Please read the pamphlet on how to manipulate chakra. There is also one on basic kenjutsu. Remember to dedicate yourself to your training, 100%._

 _I.U._

 _He put the note in his pocket and grinned. Well, he had better get started._

' _Arigatou, whoever you are.'_

The boy in the aquifer wiped away a bead of sweat on his brow with the back of his hand. He was getting close. Only the Doton clone and Raiton clone left to be created. It had been a full twenty hours since he had first started. By simple reasoning, he should finish in another four.

He created the modified ox handseal, and Kurama began manipulating and converting chakra again.

 _It had scarcely been two months since he had started learning. The boy was now a perfect eight and a half years old and developing his skills wonderfully. His family supported him when he was doing his ninja training. They knew he came from a ninja village, so it was only natural. He had learned the_ _ **Daitoppa**_ _(Great Breakthrough), and_ _ **Mizu Kasukēdo**_ _(Water Cascade). The boy was making another attempt at learning the_ _ **Chika Hira**_ _(Underground projection) but that was when things took a turn for the weird._

 _The fox inside the seal was sleeping when he was jolted awake by the sound of the boy's screams. The eight year old was writhing on the ground and clutching his head, screaming himself hoarse in pain. Tsunami dashed out of the house to see what the matter was with her 'son', if anyone, or anything had attacked him. In a swift motion, she hefted him up and held him against her chest, trying to hush him to stop. After settling down to just a quiet sob every now and again, she asked what was wrong._

" _My (Sob) head- Hurrrttss! (Sob)"_

 _She knelt down on one knee and put him to strand up. After crying himself out, he swiped at his final tears while holding his head down. When he looked up, she gasped._

 _The boy had three concentric circles on his forehead. It looked as if it was drawn in black ink with a fine brush and it worried her. She ran into the house and quickly returned with a wet washcloth. She wiped it over the boy's forehead but it was not removed. She wiped it a bit more forcefully and for longer but when she finally stopped and looked again, it was still there. After observing it for a minute, she was treated to the sight of a small arrow that suddenly appeared passing over the centermost circle on the left. Then a small kanji appeared at the end of the arrow inside the circle. She squinted and read it._

 _Understanding._

 _The woman tugged the boy inside the house for more cleaning. It would go! No such thing was going to stay on her son's forehead!_

 _A day later, the boy's forehead was sore and red and the symbol still there. The other family members were about to carry him to a doctor when the Kyuubi inside the seal told Naruto to say no._

" _ **No."**_

" _No."_

" _ **It could be a ninja ability."**_

" _It could be a ninja ability or something."_

 _Naruto experimented for a week before he was utterly exhausted. The boy had tried avenue after avenue, and all lead to dead ends. What did his ability do?_

 _In a huff, he started to read over his pamphlets. It was then he realized that many things written inside made more sense all of a sudden. He could follow the ideas easier, he didn't have to stop to ruminate on what it meant. He suddenly became a genius at figuring things out. While he did not know many things, learning became easy to him. He proved this to his family by taking a brief class at the civilian school in Wave and aced it, when he had no experience in that field before then, besides learning to read. He could…understand._

 _In his excitement, he tried to relearn how to do the jutsus for the last three elements. He understood perfectly how to perform them. It was just not within his ability to perform them. They were not his natural affinity._

 _The second instance with these strange abilities was when he was taking a break. It was a bright and sunny day, not a cloud in sight. It was a perfect time to fish. He was frustrated about performing a_ _ **shunshin**_ _(Body flicker) and he was failing. Deciding to take a day off from his training, he decided to accompany his 'father' to fish._

 _They were out in deep water, Naruto watching Kaiza casting out his nets in fruitless efforts. He was becoming bored quickly and he started to ruminate on the village, wondering if they were mistreating the clone._

 _That was when it struck him, like a proverbial flash of lightening._

 _Pain arced through his skull abruptly. He kept it together, trying to ignore it. Suddenly, the pain increased tenfold, making him yell in agony._

 _Kaiza's attention was immediately centered on the boy, who was just in time to see him accidentally throw himself overboard in his throes of agony._

 _Kaiza dropped the net and dived into the water after Naruto, who seemed to still be yelling out, creating air bubbles. Kaiza frowned as he swam after the sinking boy. The Uzumaki knew how to swim but whatever was the source of his discomfort was about to make him drown._

 _Naruto accidentally took in water as he tried to draw breath in his yelling. The horrible burn of salt water making it's way into his lungs only made the boy black out. They were in twenty feet of water and Naruto was rock bottom when he fell unconscious. As his body went limp, he started to float up again into Kaiza's arms. The fisherman quickly hooked his hand around the boy's shoulders and started to frantically swim his way back to the surface. He himself was about to run out of air when the finally broke the ceiling of the sea, Kaiza hyperventilating air._

 _He pushed Naruto over the side of the boat and quickly got in too. Not a second later, he was performing drowning-victim protocol resuscitation on the boy, forcing him to spit back up the water. Unknown to the fisherman, The Kyuubi inside the seal aided in that endeavor, purging the water out of the boy's system by pulsating chakra in the network around his lungs._

 _A few grim minutes later, Naruto came to, hurling his breakfast along with some backed up salt water in the boat. Needless to say, Kaiza was so relieved that he forgot all about fishing, including the fact that his weighted nets were now at the bottom of the sea._

Kurama completed adding the youki to the potential Doton bunshin. He only had one more left to do. He had been on his feet for the past twenty two hours. But he had to remain strong. Just one more, and then he could go to sleep.

 _He had been with them for eighteen months. Time and time again he proved to have an infallible memory, remembering even the tiniest details at a glance. Sometimes, the rest of his family would 'use' that ability of his. It wasn't exploitation; he was happy to help._

 _He would often remember dates and names for Tazuna, recall shopping specifics without the use of a list for Tsunami, help Kaiza with ideal fishing spots from memory recall and memorize formulas and definitions for Inari who would sometime's call on his help. The boy was an invaluable asset._

 _But that wasn't the reason he wanted to leave. The Kyuubi told him that the clone's chakra would run out any day now and he needed to return to the village. If it was discovered that the boy wasn't in the village, he could be hunted down and his family hurt in the process._

" _Besides, I still need to further my ninja training anyway. I still want to become hokage."_

" _Why would you leave us to go back to the place that treated you like garbage… and worse?" Tsunami was incredulous._

" _Because… people suffer like me everyday… if I become the village leader, I can help them too."_

 _They all pulled him into a hug and cried with him…and cried…and cried._

" _Promise you'll come back and visit?" Inari sniffled._

" _Yeah! I will, dattebayo!"_

Kurama converted the chakra into the lightening affinity. He withdrew his hand for the stomach and formed the modified tiger handseal. He reapplied his hand and started channeling the youki in the dormant clone. Success was close…

 _Naruto stepped back inside his home, sighing after the long day he had. He was in the process of swapping with his clone at the ramen stand. The second the clone dispersed, the fading youki made everyone in the area have shivers run down their spine. Anbu in the area were suddenly attracted to the area, or more specifically, the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko._

 _He simply walked home before some wandering mob caught up with him. He finally got home to have the sight of crass graffiti welcome him, his apartment a mess and no food or water in the house. He stepped out again to go pay a visit to the Sandaime. It wasn't going to be friendly one. He was going to discuss the state of his home._

Almost…

 _His home was now fine; his body was not. He had gotten beaten up again, on the brink of death._

 _And what was worse, he could not reveal any of his trained abilities to defend himself. He had to just take it and keep conscious (To make sure they didn't kill him) as well as let Kyuubi do his usual task of piecing him back together._

 _He was now ten, and he had gotten the worse beating of his life… ever._

 _Fractured skull, broken ribs, limbs broken and nearly wrung off his body, gashes and heavy blood loss. He was in the hospital for a month under Anbu guard before he was released. He was back under psychiatric treatment for night terrors and horrifying daydreams. The boy could remember every vivid, painful and gore-filled memory as if it had happened a second before._

 _The Sandaime was worried for the boy. He had to be knocked unconscious with anesthesia for him to actually get some sleep. But he had reached his limit. It was becoming an extreme malpractice to be using that procedure daily._

…Finished.

 _That's when Kyuubi proposed his solution. With what little fuinjutsu it knew, he would seal away his memory retaining abilities, or at least until he wouldn't be affected by them anymore. The seal was placed in the mindscape, in the form of a metal door inside the Kyuubi's cage. The only catch was, he would lose a lot of his normal ability to retain information. In other words, his short term memory would become pathetic._

 _In desperation, the boy took the offer. He… forgot._

 _He forgot about the details of the beatings; he only knew that they occurred. He forgot about how to use his abilities; he only knew he had them. With his memory shot, the boy resorted to carrying a notepad to take notes of every little thing._

 _But it was a small price to pay to be able to sleep at night. Besides, he could continue to train to keep up his strength until he got back his skills. The anbu guarding him now everyday also helped him to have enough confidence to even step outside._

 _He would return to his Peak. He was only in the Valley of the Shadow of Death at present._

Kurama was finally done. All of the clones stood in a straight line across, all twelve of them. They were all naked (unfortunately) and they had their heads hanging down. The creation was complete.

The boy fell to his knees, then to his side, panting from the earlier efforts. The fox relinquished his control over the boy, and his demonic aura faded into nothing, all was as normal as normal could be.

Inside the mindscape, where Naruto was standing next to a sitting Kurama broke his physical contact. His black orbs lost their dark shade and reverted back to his original cerulean colour. He fell to his knees, gasping for breath.

"That (pant) was (pant) longer (pant) usual…" He gulped some air before he stood again.

The fox just allowed his fore legs (or arms :c) lose their support and slumped down, nearly landing on Naruto. **"All the exhaustion I got while using your body to create the clones transferred to me in the mindscape. Just let me sleep…"**

Naruto sweat dropped. "O…K…"

" **Just let yourself out, kid. And get 'em some clothes."** The kitsune fell asleep in a moment.

The blond shrugged before he left the mindscape. His eyes closed in the mindscape and reopened to them to find himself lying on the ground, on his side. He blinked as he got up, wondering why the cave was black.

'Maybe it's because he can see well in the dark. But I can't. Let's see if I can remedy that.'

" **Katon bunshin no jutsu!** " He formed the modified ox seal. A fire flared into life and formed a clone next to him. As he wanted, the clone recreated the D ranked fire technique in it's palm. He watched as the flame…

Remained steady.

"Fantastic." He muttered. "Kage reserves, moderate output." His eyes wandered around the cavern and they rested on twelve naked individuals. He was about to yell about the awkwardness he was seeing when he noticed that they were his clones and they all appeared to be in some inactive state.

'Hey, Kurama?!' He yelled mentally. 'Couldn't you have copied my clothes or something?!'

The kitsune mumbled something along the lines of 'flesh and blood', and 'not normal clones.' He also mumbled to 'leave him alone for three days.'

Naruto shook his head in resignation. He beckoned to the fire clone in the aquifer to follow him. Together, they left the aquifer.

 **Kimyō Town's borders.**

Naruto was now alone, henged himself into another variation of himself. His blond hair changed into black, no whiskers and brown eyes. His outfit was now that of a simple kimono made of cheap fabric. He walked quickly into the settlement village, making a beeline to the inn. He hoped that he could maybe get some funds. Even if was just a smidgen.

Upon arriving, he asked the innkeeper for Midori and Kurushimi. The elderly woman who was reading just told him to knock at room '23' on the third floor before she went back to her book, not even looking up once.

He bounded up the steps quickly, made his way to the door and knocked twice, sharply.

"Hai, hai, I'm coming."

There were sounds of shuffling inside before the door opened. "Can I help you?"

"Uh, yeah! Can I enter?"

"Do I know you?" She scrutinized the boy in front of her. She had never seen this lad in her life.

"It's me, Naruto." He hissed/whispered. "I'm in a disguise technique."

"Oh? Prove it."

"When we first met and I asked how you felt, you said you felt like dried out dog shit. When I gave you my water canteen, you drank some and then you gave the rest to your husband."

He was about to continue when she shushed him by placing an index finger over her lips. "Fine. I believe you. Come inside." She turned sideways to let him have some entry. He gratefully accepted and entered; straight away going to sit on a chair at the foot of the double bed. The woman closed the door and sat on the bed, waiting expectantly.

"So? You going to tell me why you're here?"

"Uh huh. I'm not going to beat around the bush. I need a thousand ryo."

She raised an eyebrow. "That's no reason to come here. Why didn't you take it before you sent the money to us?"

"I never left here. I sent a clone back home while I stayed."

"Why did you stay?"

"Ninja secret." He grinned at the woman. The woman understood so she went to the drawer. Each of the miners in the inn were holding on to roughly twenty-eight thousand ryo. (Too large to keep together, in case something bad happened.) She counted out a full thousand and gave it to him.

"By the way, uh Midori-san?"

"Hai?"

"Arigato for the money. If we ever meet again, I'll pay it back five times over."

"You don't need to. Besides, we have enough. We're going to shop for supplies for our homes tomorrow. Will you be around?"

He got up from his seat. "I might."

He left, closing the door behind him.

 **In the aquifer, one hour later.**

The boy having released his henge, dropped the clothes in a pile in front of the standing naked clones. He looked up to his forehead and thought his message to Kurama. 'Hey Kurama. How do I wake them up? They're just standing there.'

The fox inside the seal opened a tired eye. **"Just form the ram seal and pulse your chakra. That'll get their chakra networks functioning in response."**

Naruto nodded before he formed the handseal. He stood there for a full minute, trying to 'force' his chakra into a ball inside his coils.

"Kai!" He yelled.

He flared his chakra, emitting visible chakra with him at the epicenter. As the chakra struck the clones, all of them in one accord lifted their heads…

And revealed ominous red eyes with slitted pupils.

 **And done. Well, that's the history and a huge explanation all wrapped up into one. It felt a bit like filler but then I said 'Nah, it ain't. It's important.' It's not a full 10k but there was nothing else I could add to this chapter.**

 **In other words, I passed 100k! Whooo! I want to say thanks for those who have been coming back to read with every update and who have been here from the start, namely Maail99 and Ryuujin96. Now for statistics:**

 **Words: 97, 839 + 8358 = 106195**

 **Reviews: 48**

 **Views: 21523**

 **Communities: 8**

 **Favs: 141**

 **Alerts: 191**

 **Thanks a lot folks!**

 **Sayonara.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Breaking Limits**

 **Well, I'm back. Some of you were 'complaining' about last chapter and others 'praised' it and frankly, I'm just glad I got some feedback. I was just making sure everyone got up to speed about Naruto's past. When the fic just started, didn't you ask yourself 'he just got up one day and became strong? When did he first manifest the ability? He nearly drowned in Wave? When the f*ck did that happen?' (Did you forget what Shino asked himself when he saw Naruto beat Kiba?) So on and so forth. And doing the whole back story thing helped me to avoid going into too much detail on the clones' creation and to decimate the idea of Naruto doing endless chakra control exercises.**

 **I'm also thanking Galndrael and uaeoaeoeoi (How do you pronounce a name made out of 10 vowels?) for spotting my mistakes 'Futon and wind' and 'water and water' in the last chapter and telling me. It's now fixed. I'm grateful!**

 **Warning: Filler up ahead. How much? Well...**

 **Disclaimer: I own lots of stuff. Sadly, Naruto's not one of them.**

 **20.**

'Did you get everything?'

'Yeah. Maybe you're the one who should remember that I can't forget anything, just like you. You want me to send four hundred thousand ryo we have in savings to you in Kimyō Town so you can make the necessary purchases. I'm supposed to take keep thirty thousand for me to feed myself and just keep acting like you. And to teach Hinata the **Shosen** if it's permitable. I also need to keep replenishing clones who are still in the hospital and library. See, I didn't forget anything.'

'Fine. Don't mess anything up. I also want weekly updates on what's going on.' He then cut the mental connection to the shadow clone still in Konoha and turned to the others.

The Katon using clone was currently manipulating fire in it's palm to provide light as Naruto stood before the others. "Well, that's that. So what's first on the agenda?" Naruto asked the twelve clones who were all dressed in civilian garb.

"Perhaps names should be first. After all, we would be able identify better. Without it, people would just call all of us Naruto."

"True. Hmm." Naruto held his chin and looked up to his forehead. Something that identifies you but still easy to recall." He snapped his fingers. (Eureka!) "What if you all took the 'Nar' part of the name and finished it based on what role you contribute. Like for example-" He pointed at one of the elemental clones. "You'll be Narmizu, since you're using water release techniques."

Said clone gave a small fist pump as all the clones quickly named themselves, along with Naruto giving approvals for most and thumbs down for others. At the end of it all, the original asked for a mock role call.

"Alright, that's it. When I call your duty, you'll stand and tell me your name. Let's start with water again." He cleared his throat. "Water?"

"Narmizu, present." (Water)

"Fire?"

"Narkasai, present." (Fire)

"Wind?"

"Narkaze, present." (Wind)

"Earth?"

"Nariwa, present." (Rock)

"Lightening?"

"Narshokku, present." (Shock)

"Traps?"

"Naruso, present." (Lies)

"Medic?"

"Narishi, present." (Doctor)

"Assassination and espionage?"

"Narkira, present." (Killer)

"Interrogation and torture?"

"Narburei, present." (Rude/impolite)

"Scouting and sensoring?"

"Narsensa, present." (Sensor)

"Narken? Nartai?"

The kenjutsu and taijutsu clones answered 'present' at the same time and the role call was completed.

"Alright. That's everyone. As you all should know, we'll be getting almost all of my savings from D ranked missions and the A rank pay shipped here within two days. One of you will be heading to Kumo to get some gear purchased cheaply. They have the best ore and ninja clothing in the highest quality and quantity. We're going to need that so the money will go far for the twelve of you. We're also going do some bounty hunting for high chunin and low jounin to make some money to create some safe houses as well as… feed ourselves."

"We need to eat?" Narkasai asked.

"Of course. You're living, walking, human beings who all look the same."

They all sweat dropped heavily at the response but Naruto continued. "We also have three months to train- hold on…" 'Kurama, they **do** have all of my abilities up until now, _right_?'

The Fox barely roused itself. **"Gh…of course."** The Kitsune nodded off to sleep again instantly. "We will be doing strength training until we get some gear under here and…and… wait a minute. Perfect idea time!"

"Care to share? You turned off the mental connection."

"We will be gold digging! It's so obvious! To actually do all the menial labor that comes with this will put some real muscle on us. _And_ we'll get paid in the end. That will make this whole process far, far easier!"

"With what tools?" The wind clone asked.

"The miners left their tools. They were told exactly where to dig because the brothers already scouted it out with the **Chika Hira**. It's just that something that dense and heavy could not be removed in a likewise manner. Digging was necessary."

"We get that." Nartai said.

"When this comes through, everything will come together perfectly. After everyone's well off financially, we will all be together only occasionally. We'll mainly be in groups of three or pairs if needs be. Besides, all of us in Konoha is a bad idea so six safe houses here and there in the elemental nations would be prudent."

"Is that all, _captain_?" Narken said sarcastically.

"Captain? I won't need a title to all that. I only request that when I say something, you listen, we follow through and we get shit done like of you should know that I don't intend for you to disperse and you shouldn't try that either. Unless it's a 'death before capture' kind of deal. If it's that, a **Daibakuha** is the way to go. Now everyone, make yourselves comfortable. We sleep in here tonight. I only have two hundred ryo left and that's to feed us until the money comes in. We start work in three days 'cause I don't want you to start using up what little calories you have now."

"Hai." (x12)

They all moved the protruding and offending rocks to one side, and were about to sleep on their backs when the original Naruto cried out in a shout.

"Kami! The brothers have decent sleeping quarters and some food close to the tunnel entrance. Let's go!"

Nariwa opened an eye. "Well, I was already sleeping in my element but I guess I have to create some clones for the rest of you to climb up, huh?"

"Yep!"

 **Two days later, midday.**

He walked over briskly to a tree where twelve assorted figures were waiting in different positions. All the boys and teenagers were either standing or sitting or lying down in the shade of it while the rest had climbed it. It gave the impression that was some kind of club to others who looked on.

He leaned against the tree and called out in his thoughts. 'Alright. It's here.'

'About time! When do I leave?' Narken thought back, relieved.

'You leave in an hour. Let's get back to the tunnel.'

All of them immediately climbed the tree high up in the foliage before leaving in a shunshin. To an outsider, all they would have seen was a couple of boys climbing a shady tree before many leaves fell out of it.

At the entrance to the tunnel close to hole/lid, thirteen boys and teens suddenly appeared out of a swirl of leaves before dispelling their henges. They promptly took on the form of a whiskered boy with short and spiky blond hair, dressed in clothes of varying makes, fabrics and colors.

Nartai sighed. "We can finally get a break from ramen and bread. About damn time if you ask me."

The others agreed with him even though the creator started to reminisce a little about how that was all his diet was composed of when he was younger. He shook his head and instantly regained his focus. He opened the small brown envelope he got from the postal office and took out a seal.

"Let's get inside. I don't want to unseal this thing where the wind can get at it."

Narmizu opened the lid and let everyone hop down into it before he followed inside as well, closing it behind him. The katon clone promptly lighted a couple torches on the wall to provide some light so they could see. The glow of the flames revealed a carved out room with cushions and cloths strewn about, evidencing sleepers who got out of 'bed' in haste.

Naruto plopped himself down on his cushion and channeled a little chakra into his seal. He decided to go for a quick way by unsealing everything at once and soon, three hundred and seventy thousand ryo sat on the floor in a neat pile, all in one and five thousand ryo bills.

One of the clones gave a low whistle. "At least he didn't send it in small change. Hot damn!"

"Indeed. Narken has elected himself to go to Kumo. Someone else will have to accompany him." Naruto said. "How about you, Narmizu?"

"Sure."

"Take three hundred and ten thousand. My gear probably cost my gifter from five years ago around twenty thousand. Twenty-five thousand should be enough for the rest of you. The last ten is for emergencies or purchases you see fit to patronize."

"Yeah, yeah." Narken rolled his eyes.

"And bring back the _change_."

"Whatever."

"I'll go into town and buy some food to last us the rest of us a couple of days while everyone else get to work in the mine."

" **If I may say something."**

"Oh? You done with your nap?"

The fox sighed, a bit annoyed with his container. **"** _ **Hai. My nap.**_ **The youki I forged around their coils should be able to suppress the yang energy of chakra in your bodies."** He said to the clones. **"I've been listening for a while and I believe that Kumo would be more wary than Konoha when letting in people in their village. They are very militaristic. Your Kage level chakra reserves is just a huge white spot for any sensors they have. You should learn to manipulate the youki in your bodies before you leave as well as master your chakra balance. Did you expect to walk in with red eyes?"**

All of them looked to each other awkwardly.

" **Shouldn't take you more than say, five minutes to master the balance with 'Focus'. It's just that by suppressing your chakra, you're less durable than for your original intentions. You could suppress your chakra 'till it's the 'normal' amount for a civilian but you will be as weak as one. Rules apply, of course. While you're suppressing your chakra, your eyes should turn back blue but you'll keep the deep whiskers. When you achieve perfect balance, your physical changes will become normal and you'll still be able to retain your durability. Also, the clones that are going will need some cosmetic changes to their appearances. Can't use a henge."**

Naruto clapped his hands. "Well, Ken gets brown hair dye and he'll dirty up his cheeks. Black hair dye for Mizu as well as walking with a limp. He'll enter Kumo one hour before Ken and leave likewise. Simple."

" **Easier said than done. Beside, if you clones die, at least you could have said you tried. Best get started now. The distance from here to Kumo by tree hopping and sprinting should be a two to three day journey."** Kurama said with a half sneer/smirk inside the seal.

They all shrugged before they got to their respective duties. Time was limited.

 **One week later – (Ten days total have flown)**

Eleven of the T13 huddled around the hot pot, eating their red bean stews. The glow of the coals beneath the cookware provided some kind of comfort and solidarity as they ate. Even though Naruto knew they were little more than physical manifestations of himself, he felt like they were some kind of dysfunctional family for him, especially when it seemed like they were developing individual identities and feelings.

All of the 'feelings' were Naruto's to begin with; it was as if each clone had picked a 'feeling' and brought that to the foremost of their character. As in the case of Nartai who was becoming an impatient person. He **hated** waiting.

He spooned another bite of the stew into his mouth, savoring the taste. 'I wonder how much longer before Ken and Mizu come back. I'm the only one with weapons and gear.'

Faint footsteps rapidly becoming louder came from the undergrowth. All of them looked up from their bowls, looking up to where they sounded from. They were unsurprised to see Narken and Narmizu come into the clearing, each with a heavy looking backpack, still with their hair dyes in.

"About fucking time!" Nartai yelled.

Naruto sighed before he got up and started ladling more of the stew into two more bowls and setting them down on a makeshift table. "Were you stomping to announce your arrival?"

"Mizu here thought it would be good idea to not startle you." Narken said. He took off his pack and set it carefully against the tree. "Besides, Tai should know that we ran our damn best to get there, shop for the right stuff and get back as quickly as possible."

"Whatever. Just give me my stuff." Nartai retorted.

Naruto held up his hands. "Let's just finish eating, clear everything away and get inside first. It's night, in case you didn't realize. Besides, Nartai, a week was average time for what they had to do." He turned back to Narmizu. "Although I wonder how they got everthing in just two backpacks?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Most of the stuff is in seals." The suiton bunshin said, starting to eat his stew with gusto. "Ah! We haven't eaten for a full day, what with the way we were traveling."

They finished their meal in fifteen minutes at the end of which everyone performed their habitual rituals after a meal. Scout took everyone's bowls and washed them in a makeshift sink attached to a tree that ran into a hole that was dug deep to the tree roots while the fire bunshin took up the pot and carried it inside the tunnel. Nariwa kicked over some dirt and put out the embers of the fire while everyone else went inside. As soon as Narken and Mizu got inside, they were pleasantly surprised to see that a lot of improvements were made to the former living quarters to the brothers. Over the week, T13 had truly made it their own.

There were now twelve torches lining the walls now instead of the few faulty ones that were there before. The enhanced lighting revealed a 'T13' symbol painted in red on a large flat section and three chests of drawers. Now, Assassination began to fiddle with a seal drawn on the wall when Naruto stopped him by grasping his shoulder.

"Nah. Let's get everthing Mizu and Ken carried sorted out first."

The clone nodded before he took a seat on a stray cushion. "So be it."

Naruto retrieved the backpacks and placed them on the floor in the center of the 'room' and started to remove them. Before he really delved into it, Mizu relieved him of the task and did it himself. First, he took out two seals which he handed to Naruto. He merely shrugged before he unsealed them.

Pants and sandals came out, a dozen of each. They were all identical gray sandals with ankle length pants. When Naruto saw this, he frowned.

"Did you get everyone the same exact thing I wore? What's in the next seal?" Without even waiting for an answer, he activated the second storage seal and virtual copies of his close fitting v-neck shirt with hoods came out, along with grey bandannas.

"Hai." Narken said. "I've gotten some thinking done about individuality but the basics had to be something of a team uniform. So I used your clothes as an example."

Naruto sighed deeply. "Alright. What do you have?"

He replied by taking out several colour spools of thread along with paints coupled with brushes. He even took out a sturdy carving knife.

"I see." Naruto observed the threads. "We can all sew and paint but we need a design though."

"How about we use the 'T13' symbol close to the top of the shirt that won't get covered by the hood, and then a symbol of the area we will specialize in. We can also place our specific symbol over the left side. You know, over our hearts."

"While that sounds feasible, I don't think having it over our hearts is a good idea. That sounds like freakin' bulls-eye to me." Naruto concluded.

"I think we should still do this. Besides, everyone knows where your heart is; it won't make a difference." The fire clone argued.

"Let's put it to a vote then." Naruto raised his voice a little. "All those in favor that we do it."

Eight hands were raised.

"Opposed?"

Four hands.

"We use the design on the chest." Naruto said. "As for the back, I don't think that needs a vote. We can all stitch the designs in our own time. Now what else you got?"

Narmizu took out another seal and decided to unseal it himself. Tantos in back-sheathes complete with straps dropped out, making a slight clattering noise. Immediately in a small bomb rush, all the clones rushed to take one up and take out the blade, hearing the familiar sound of steal sliding from leather. It almost felt…comforting.

Nartai looked a bit unsure about his, wondering if it went against his nature. The original Uzumaki noticed this and began to speak up.

"All of us can use weapons. It's just that Ken here will aspire to be the most skillful in the art. All of us use jutsu, taijutsu, kenjutsu and all the other shit that comes with being a ninja-"

"Except genjutsu!" Narburei called out.

Medic shut his eyes. "Perhaps I will be able to in the future."

"Yeah, yeah. We all know about your control." Naruto stated. "But in any case, all of us need something to fall back on. For Ken, it might be taijutsu." He pointed at said clone. "For Tai, it may be kenjutsu." He now pointed at Nartai. It's just that each developed skill is our foremost for abilities."

Narken took out a seal from his pocket. "In any case, I got myself a standard issue chokuto from Kumo anyway." He unsealed said weapon from it and revealed its design. It was a three feet long blade with a double handle that was done with silver and red diamond patterns. That was it.

"Well, Ken's gettin' all the good stuff." Nartai almost bemoaned.

"Well, I got some resilience gloves and joint braces for you." He unsealed said items and tossed them to the taijutsu using clone. Nartai caught them and looked them over. He quickly slipped one of his hands in a glove and felt it. All the knuckles inside were padded but the outside there was some kind of cup shaped metal. It was round outside but the inside was curved in and cushioned. Nartai felt powerful with it on. While he could break out a few teeth with a fist, his hand would be completely secure.

"Awesome," he muttered before removing the glove.

Narmizu started removing things more quickly now, taking out shuriken and kunai holsters with said weapon sets coming after. Next, He took out a dozen of the batons and told a wild story about how he found them about to be thrown out and got them for next to nothing. Naruto was only too glad to hear that.

Changes of clothes, rolls of sealing paper, brushes, high quality ink and a beginner's guide to Fuinjutsu. Dried food provisions (Promptly stored in the cupboard by the raiton clone.), hygiene products like toothpaste, soaps and such were welcomed (They already had this stuff but as you know, more of what you need can't hurt you.) assorted office supplies. The steel banded gloves followed all of this and finally, Naruto was given a seal in his hand. It was the last.

He shrugged before he unsealed it. A wad of carefully wrapped notes was came into his open palm which he quickly counted by leafing through. "Forty thousand ryo?!" He nearly shouted in surprise. "Wait a minute. How is that number so exact?"

"Narken gave all the ryo coins to a crippled beggar. I didn't stop him, knowing that he got that ideal from you." The water clone said with a snicker.

"…" Naruto smiled as the rest started laughing. "Alright, let's get to bed. Everyone put up their combat clothes while elementals help me seal up back weapons and gear. Scout will put all the miscellaneous things in the chest while everyone else unseal and set up the thirteen mattresses for sleeping. Tomorrow, I'm making us all level gravity seals set to four while we work in the mine."

They did as they were told and in fifteen minutes, all of the Thirteen were in bed with all but one torch quenched, providing a meager light to the carved out room.

 **Next morning, 7 a.m., Konoha –(The clone in Konoha will be called Naruto to keep the prose)**

Naruto eyes opened to see the ceiling of his apartment. He yawned and rubbed his eye corners, fully awake. Ever since 'Focus' was acquired, Naruto and the clones could awake at any time, fully lucid without the usual 'fogginess' that accompanied waking.

He quickly made some unsweetened coffee and drank it in sips while he used his free hand to do some general cleaning of the three rooms. He swept and picked up after himself and finally finished his drink just in time to wash the dishes. There wasn't much; he was the only one eating at home. As soon as he was done, he put on a green t-shirt and blue shin-length shorts to go with some blue sandals. On his way out, he grabbed a sweatband and put it on, covering his symbol.

'So where do I go? I haven't really developed any hobbies or leisure activities in my spare time. 'I' used to train with every spare second I got but I can't do serious jutsu training or using when I'm under punishment. Most I can probably do is a body flicker for high-speed movement, maybe. Perhaps taijutsu or learn more about fuinjutsu.'

He was walking straight to the café without even realizing it, as was his morning custom. He activated his usual henge over his head (to make his hair appear brown with no spikes and no whiskers) as he walked in and strode up to the man at the counter.

"Ohayou."

"Ohayou. May I have my usual please?"

"Sure thing!" The middle aged man smiled before calling to his cook in the back. Not three minutes later, a waitress carried a plate with scrambled eggs, French-fried strips of bacon and bread to his table. Naruto briefly graced it before eating and while he did so, the waitress poured some fruit juice into his empty cup. He soon completed his meal and paid the bill with an over-standard tip. He had seen the hovel where the waitress lived; she would need it.

Walking again now, he was at a complete loss at what to do. He was walking aimlessly when he started to feel paranoid, as if someone was watching his every move. He looked around behind him suddenly and caught the barest glimpse of midnight-blue hair as it flashed behind a large electric pole.

He pretended not to notice and started walking again; he didn't want to clue this person in that he knew that they were there. He turned a sharp corner quickly and when his stalker turned the bend, they were shocked to no longer see him.

'Where did he go?'

They walked up quickly, hoping that he could still be spotted. For a brief moment, activating their Kekkei genkai seemed feasible and the stalker was about to when they were pulled suddenly pulled into an alley mid-stride.

"Eeep!"

"What the-? Hinata? Why were you following me?"

Said girl had her neck in a v-crook choke hold with her back to her offender. She was promptly released as soon as Naruto realized it was her, the Hyuuga with a blush fast becoming her whole face complexion.

"Umm… umm…"

Naruto sighed mentally. 'What's up with this girl? She's following me but won't call to me to ask me to stop. Now she looks like she's catching the flu or something!' He decided to try and smooth things out by speaking first.

"Look, I'm really sorry about jumping you like that, what with the way you were stalking me or something."

"…"

He sweat dropped. "Well, this is awkward." His eyes scanned their surroundings quickly. "Err, lets get out of this alley, 'fore people start to get ideas."

He patted her shoulder twice and smiled to assure her of good intentions. The girl visibly stiffened a little at the physical contact before she realized he had grabbed her wrist so he could pull her out back into the street. In her mind, she enjoyed the action as smiled, thinking of the complications. When they were back out, he released her hand, much to her displeasure.

"C'mon, walk with me." He beckoned her with a 'follow me' as he started to walk off.

'W-walk with him?' She froze a little, wondering what his intentions were when he asked that. "Perhaps i-it's a w-walk for friends?' She started walking up a tad speedily to catch up to him and walked alongside.

"S-so, why haven't you been coming to t-team m-meetings?"

Naruto did a light double take. "You don't know? Hasn't anyone told you?"

"K-know what? I tried to ask K-k-Kurenai-sensei but she didn't want to say anything."

" _Kurenai-sensei_ , huh?" He gave off the vibe of wanting to break something of immense value when he said the woman's name. "Of course. But there's no reason she shouldn't tell you. All team members should know."

"W-what is i-it?" Hinata started fretting a little, wondering what was wrong that no one would tell her.

"It's real simple. My active ninja-status had been revoked for three months. I have roughly ten weeks more to go before I get it back."

She gave an inaudible gasp. "W-why?"

He didn't answer. He merely looked left and right quickly as if looking for anyone observing them. Seeing none, He grabbed Hinata's shoulder and shunshinned with her back to his apartment in a double swirl of leaves.

 **AN - (I believe that shunshins get more time in travel the farther the distance is. So in a sense, milliseconds if close and across the village, minutes. That's why the Hiraishin get's so much respect. There is no time to measure. Instantaneous with no travel time at any distance. I'm sorry if it came off that I'm using the shunshin like teleportation...i just like to think that it's so fast that short range use is** _ **like**_ **teleportation.)**

Arriving at the entrance to the apartment a minute later,

He released her shoulder. She started showing signs of nausea but he quickly spawned a clone with tiny reserves who used the **Shosen** (Mystical Palm) technique on her, placing it's hand over her forehead. Five seconds later, she was as good as new.

"A…arigatou." She said quietly.

"You're welcome. Now let's get inside, quickly." He tugged on her wrist while opening the door with his other hand, both entering at the same time. As soon as they were inside, he closed the door and secured the privacy chain.

"W-why did you take us b-back to your apartment?" The pale eyed girl's mind started imagining wild and crazy fantasies around the very idea, and all of which she wished would happen. Another, more sane part of her consciousness fought to keep the girl from fainting from her perverse thoughts, although it didn't keep her from blushing heavily again. Tonight was going to be a _long_ night. Either that, or she was going to need clean undergarments to change in before the night was over. _Hint-hint._

"This is important. I want you-"

He was cut off when he saw the girl starting to fall backwards heavily. He dove forward and landed on the ground just in time before she hit his back, cushioning her fall. He cursed.

"What the hell?"

He turned while he was still underneath her until she was lying on his chest before he leaned up with an arm while he held her across her upper back and getting up to a kneel. "Geez. I was only going to say I wanted her to listen carefully. Does she blush heavily before she faint as a warning or something?"

He grabbed her legs at the lower thighs and heaved her up in a bridal carry before placing her down gently on his bed. "This girl's too weird, even for me." He sat down on the bed beside her and waited for her to wake up.

He grew tired of waiting five minutes later and decided to brew some green tea. 'Maybe the smell of the tea essence will wake her.'

He quickly added the leaves to the teapot and boiled it on a high flame. He then added an orange-tree leaf for taste enhancement and sweetened it with a little honey. As soon as he was done, he walked over to the unconscious girl and fanned the steam (And by extension, the smell) of the tea with his hand at the girl's face. After fifteen seconds of the ministrations, she woke slowly to see an unfamiliar ceiling and Naruto next to her fanning…something at her.

She sat up quickly with her legs dangling off the bed. "G-gomenasai. I didn't mean to faint-"

"Yeah, yeah. It's fine. Good thing I stopped you from falling on your head or something." He said with an amused grin. "Had to catch you."

Her eyes wandered from his face to the cup, an action that was not lost on him. "Want the tea?" He held it out to her which she took gratefully.

"A-arigatou." She said quietly, feeling almost ashamed of her episode.

"As I was saying, I want you to listen carefully to what I'm about to say." He started again.

Her eyes widened as she sipped the tea. 'So t-that's what he was g-going to say? I t-thought he said he wanted m-me. He d-didn't finish speaking.' Now she really felt embarrassed. Whether it was because she fainted or if it was because of her inner perversion, she herself did not know.

Naruto saw her eyes widen. "What's wrong? It's not good?" He asked worriedly.

She caught up to the present. "H-hai. It's very good." She drank another sip, truly tasting it for the first time. It was delicious. "The b-best I've ever h-had."

"Aw, you're just saying that." He scratched the back of his head in his trademark sheepish way while grinning.

She smiled. "I m-mean it."

Naruto smiled back, almost making the girl giddy with happiness. "Heh. Anyway, as I was gonna say, it was about the mission to Kimyō Town that went wrong."

"W-what about i-it?"

He essentially told her a (pg-13) watered down version of the mission details, leaving out gory descriptions and that he 'stopped' Shita. "…and then the tags exploded in the sky. The end." He grinned, saying the last with a bit of a flourish.

"It's g-good to know you helped the trafficking v-victims. B-but no one told m-me. N-not even Ko. He did say that he was t-thankful for something b-but when I asked him what it was, he s-said he couldn't tell me."

"Perhaps he's grateful that he's alive." The Uzumaki pointed out. He got up and went to relight the flame under the kettle with the tea and returned to the girl's side. "You should be happy for him Hinata. To be honest, I was still harboring a grudge against him for what he did when we were younger."

"T-the bullies…"

"Hai. If you hadn't put in a good word for him I would have been having serious doubts of whether I should've helped him or not."

She was about to give a predictable reply about his morality but he quickly interrupted her. "I know, I know. But I find it next to impossible to forgive people when I can recall whatever wrong they've done me as if it happened a minute before."

"H-how come?" She asked in curiosity.

"Just is." He heard the kettle whistling it's call and he quickly got up to finish preparing it. He turned off the gas feeding the flame before he poured the tea into a cup and added some honey to it. He carried it back with him back to his spot beside Hinata. "It's not as if I only remember bad things. It applies to a lot of things."

"Are you a s-savant?"

"Something like that." He said with a shrug. He was about to drink his own tea when he saw that she had finished hers. "I'm sorry; did you want some more?"

"Yes please, if y-your willing t-to offer."

"I'm willing." He took her empty cup and gave her his. She slightly blushed as she took it from him for in her mind, that somewhat counted as a selfless gesture. Naruto merely smiled as if he didn't care one way or another about the tea. He felt somewhat happy that someone was willing to even sit down and talk with him, besides the usual few. He started to wonder if this was what Kurama meant when he had spoken to the original, back when the Hyuuga had broken his door down in her concerns for him. Here she was, in his apartment (for the third time) only once was her own will to enter but now, maybe he could call this girl a friend. His first friend besides Kurama.

She actually cared for him, even if she had outrageous fainting spells and blushed way too often. But she cared; if she didn't she wouldn't have tried to stay in her apartment and furthermore, take anything he would give her. Either she wasn't poisoned against him yet and was ignorant of the village's bias to him, or she knew and still tried to place herself in his life, even if it were just a tiny margin thus far.

The first and only time he had called her the affectionate was when he was caught up in his emotional maelstrom when he learnt of his privacy intrusion, as well-intentioned as it may. Now, he was clear-minded and it was becoming _clear_ that he could use the –chan suffix and keep using it.

"Say, Hinata-chan."

"Hmm?" Her blush increased when she heard him use the affectionate for the second time of her life.

"It's your day off, right? That's why you didn't really have anything to do?"

"Err, h-hai. But I still would've trained at home anyw-way."

"Don't you have any outing ideas, you know, one we could share?" He asked. He raised the cup to his lips to take a sip but he received the surprise that it was empty. "Oh yeah. Didn't realize I swapped an empty cup." He wandered into the kitchen to put it into the sink.

Her mind started working double-quick time. 'If my m-mouth touched that part of the c-cup and his mouth touched it too, is that like an indirect k-kiss?" She wasn't given much time to muse over this because he returned instantly. (Whether this was a good or bad thing varied with opinion.)

"Sooo… nothing?"

She shook her head and sipped some more of the tea.

"Hmm… hey!" He exclaimed, thinking of something. "How 'bout we go arrow shooting at the Target shop in the business district? It'll be fun and training at the same time. Wadd'ya say?"

"Uh…sure!" She finished the tea and put the cup in his sink herself. As soon as she completed her task, he beckoned her to the door with his head. He let her leave first before following, closing the door behind him.

They walked briskly through the village, taking the main-way to the Target establishment. Along the way, Hinata noticed that Naruto would either lag far behind her or walk far ahead of her but almost never beside her. She decided to say something; it was really bothering her. She stopped walking completely so he would have to catch up to her.

"N-Naruto-kun, why won't you walk b-beside me? Are you…ashamed of m-me?" Her face became distraught as she started to look down at the ground.

"No! No. I just don't want the villagers to identify you with me, is all." He said quickly. As soon as he saw the girl look as if she was about to tear up, he tried to amend his statement, realizing that she misunderstood him.

"Look. The villagers don't like me very well. And if they see you with me, they'll think the same way about you too." He waved both of his arms out to emphasize 'villagers'. "I don't want them to treat you the same way, Hinata-chan."

She raised her head to look him in the eyes. 'He's doing it because he cares for my r-reputation?' "B-but why don't they like y-you?" She asked the blond.

'Aw shit! What's the closest thing to the truth that won't tell her the actual truth?!' "They don't like person I'm friend's with." He replied.

She raised her eyebrow and started walking again. "Who's your friend?"

"He's been a friend for some time now. He's my accomplice in most of my pranks." He walked up beside her.

"Oh. B-but you don't prank anymore and you used to say you only pranked who deserved it."

"Who deserves it or not varies with opinion. Anyway, we're here." He stopped walking abruptly and she nearly passed him, heedless of the destination.

He sashayed a little to one side to let her enter first. She did so appreciatively and looked around the store. It was expansive on the inside. There were a lot of different accuracy activities such as arrow shooting, darts, slingshotting, knife-throwing and even trust shooting.

Trust shooting was the classic 'shoot an apple off someone's head' but it had been adapted for anyone to use any weapon of their choice. Apparently, it was usually patronized by ninjas but right now, that booth was empty. Hinata was having serious doubts about doing this exercise, even though solid iron helmets were provided for those who were hesitant.

She settled for doing one of the easier-themed activities and looked behind herself for her companion. She didn't notice him at first but after some scrutiny, she realized that it was Naruto under a **henge**. His now non-spiky hair was dark brown and his face lacked its whisker birthmarks-...the very same she was not ashamed to admit looked 'cute'. If only she could find a word that was synonymous with that particular word that wasn't so effeminate. She'd tell him...as soon as she grew a sturdier backbone, that is.

"N-Naruto-kun?"

He came up beside her when he heard her call. "Hai?"

"Why are you using the transformation technique?" She lowly whispered the last. "Isn't it wrong because you're on punishment?"

He looked up to his forehead for a single second while having a mock-contemplative look. "Because of what I said earlier about the villagers. Besides, I've been using **henges** for a while now. I haven't gotten into trouble yet so it must be alright." He looked around the store, wondering what to do first. "Which one do you want to try first, Hinata-chan?"

"Perhaps we c-could throw darts first?"

"Sounds good." He walked up the dart section where a middle-aged man was wiping down the counter. "Excuse me, sir? How much for a turn for Dart-throwing?"

"Twenty ryo a turn, kid." The man said without even looking up. "You get five darts for a turn. Are you playing for prizes or just for fun?"

"Tell me about the prizes venture."

"To play for prizes, it's fifty ryo a turn, three darts, smaller targets and a distance handicap of an extra ten meters. For every accumulated score of a hundred, you pick a prize." The man reached down below the counter and retrieved an example of the smaller target. It had concentric circles with a small one for '100', one that was encircled that one that was labeled '50' and the whole border for everything was '25'.

The pair looked over the board, and then back at a larger one down in the throwing aisle. "Perhaps the easier one f-first? Just to know if we're good enough to t-try the smaller one?"

"Makes sense." 'Even though I can't miss whatever I 'focus' on.' "Lets try the first one then, please. Two turns."

The man nodded with a gruff 'hai' before handing over the darts. Naruto counted out forty ryo and gave it to the man before they walked up to a tape-line. "Why don't you go first, Hinata-chan?"

"M-me?"

"Sure." He handed over five of the darts to her and stepped back, giving her some extra room. "It's just for fun."

She toed the line and held the dart over her right shoulder with her left arm slightly held out in front for balance. She threw a dart at the target and made a fifty, just short of making a hundred.

"You're doing great! Just aim a little more left and you'll make dead center!" Naruto praised.

She flushed a little and proceeded to throw another, this time making just inside the '100' circle. Naruto congratulated her even more, making her confidence rise a little. She continued throwing her last three darts and made '50', '50' and '100' consecutively, all of the fifties extremely close to the '100' circle.

"Wow. Hope I can measure up to your standards." Naruto 'bemoaned'. He had noticed that whenever the girl scored inside the hundred circle, her self esteem rose a little so he decided let her keep it. The glory of being superior, that is.

He threw three fifties, a twenty-five and single '100', one that was by all means, looked like an 'lucky accident' to the man running the dart booth.

"Wish I could throw like you, Hinata-chan." He said with a sigh. "You're a lot better than me at this."

Her lucid complexion flushed at his praise deeply. "Arigatou. But you did very well yourself…"

In his mind, he noticed the lack of a stutter. 'Wow. Me 'losing' is actually helping someone. Maybe I can work with this.' "Maybe you can give me some tips. I want to try again, before we try the harder one."

"…Hai." She had originally thought that she was horrible at this but seeing him get '275' out of '500' when she herself got '350' made her feel happy. Not happy that she was better than him or anything in an unkind way but happy that she wasn't 'worthless' like how Neji treated her when they were sparring or his snide and underhanded remarks.

She gave Naruto twenty ryo while he paid for himself only this time, receiving ten more darts. Hinata looked at his feet and noticed his throwing stance was 'off'. She nudged him into a more correct one with small punts with her own foot, and watched him make a '50' easily, coming quite close to the center circle.

"Wow! I nearly made that one!"

Hinata smiled to herself, seeing his gleeful exuberance. She continued to help his posturing and positions and at the end of it all, Naruto had two '100's, and three '50's. He gave the girl a friendly side hug and grinned. "'350'?! Thanks a lot, Hinata-chan! You're a great help!"

It took her all of her mental energies and strengthening confidence to not pass out in delight. She took her turn next and made a full '450', the third dart falling just short of the center-most circle.

"Yeah! I think you should take on the challenge, Hinata-chan. I'm sure you can do it."

"But, this one was easier…"

"I insist! I know you can do it!" He pushed her towards the counter, where he laid down his remaining ryo. "Oh. I'm short ten ryo. Hinata-chan, do you have any?"

She dug deep in a pocket on the inside of her bulky jacket. "I found… ten!" She placed it on the counter as well in front of the on-looking man who scooped up the coins.

"Alright, three darts." He gave the throwing projectiles to the Hyuuga, seeing that she was the better thrower. She took them but gave two of them to Naruto.

"Wh… why are you giving them to me?"

"You have been spending the most up until now; it's only right." She replied to the Uzumaki.

He had noticed but he didn't care. Perhaps in some part of his mind, he had _wanted_ to. "Alright, since you wont budge on the issue." He turned to the man at the counter, only to realize that the man was out of the booth and making his way to the dartboard. He quickly replaced it with a smaller variant and came back to the pair where he pointed at another tape line that was indeed ten meter further, added to the original distance. Naruto, not wasting anytime went behind it and toed the line before he threw the first dart, making '25'. He threw the second and made a well placed '50'. He then made a small groan before steeping back, giving Hinata some room in which to throw well.

She hesitated a little, forcing Naruto to try some heavy-handed measures.

He started to chant the girl's name.

"Hi-na-ta-chan, Hi-na-ta-chan, Hi-na-ta-chan."

She flushed a little before she steeled herself. She threw the dart and made dead center, much to her reveling. She hugged Naruto in her emotional high, making the blond blush lightly. He wasn't hugged any, since he left Wave. It was then he decided that he rather liked hugs.

 _A lot._

The man in the booth smiled a little before he retrieved a large box from it's hidden cupboard. "That's a well earned '175'. Take your pick." The children walked back up to the counter as he opened it. They peered inside and saw all sorts of paraphernalia and souvenirs. There were key chains, balls, couple of office supplies here and there, toys, bottle openers and such.

"Well, I'm not really seeing anything that catches my eye." Naruto said with some finality. "Why don't you take something you want?"

The Hyuuga heiress had thought that since he had fronting most of the cost, he should pick but he just said he didn't want anything he saw. A small glimmer or light reflection caught her eye and she noticed a charm bracelet nearly completely buried under everthing else. She fished it out carefully and looked it over while the man half closed the box.

"Are you sure that's what you want?" He queried.

She saw the little attachments of hearts and chibi animals. "Hai…" She replied in a near whisper.

The man nodded before he finished closing the box and put it away again while the girl quickly put on the bracelet. It fit her hand as if it were tailor-made for it. "Arigato, Naruto-kun."

"You're welcome. Let's go." The pair of youngsters walked out of the establishment, side by side. On the way out, Naruto decided that he might as well get started on teaching Hinata the mystical palm technique today. Right now, they had nothing but free time.

'Who knew that losing was so helpful?'

 **Brief Time Skip (Kimyō Town)**

It had been three weeks since the blond genin was penalized for insubordination. The Tenacious Thirteen® were digging in the mine everyday for ten hours with short breaks in between for eating. Each had a level 4 gravity seal on so whatever work they had to do, they had to put out an exponential effort to actually get anything done. Their bodies could barely adapt to the strain so Naruto had decided that increasing the seal again anytime soon would be adverse to their physical health. Although at the present, their muscles, while not getting bigger, it was a lot more defined and normal weapons were starting to feel like feathers when they removed the seal at nights.

At first, he had worried that all of them would suffer muscle strain, especially the clones but Kurama had assured him that the youki inside the clones coupled with a tiny amount of yang ensured healing and cellular regeneration comparable to his influence inside the Uzumaki.

It was during the lunch time when all the clones except Nartai where having lunch back up in the room that was 'upstairs' in the tunnel. They were eating, sometimes looking at each other and then back at their dishes. No conversation or small talk passed between them.

At least not verbally, that is. Eating and speaking at the same time had never been easier.

'Tastes good Narsensa.'

'Thanks Narmizu. Fire boy over there helped me out a lot. I tell you, if he couldn't have manipulated the flames to be a little less, the rice would've burnt.'

'Yeah, yeah. I'm awesome. Fire's the best!'

'Feh. I can still kick your ass.'

'With what? A little water? I'll turn it into steam.'

'That's enough. We all know that elementals compliment as well as beat each other.'

'Whatever cap'n'

'Stop calling me cap'n, Narshokku.'

'Hey! I found it!'

'Sounds like Nartai. Haven't heard him thinking back to us for a while. ' Naruto looked up from his lunch.

'That guy thinks?' Narkaze thought through the connection.

'Shut your trap and come help me, goddamn it!' The angry message came.

'I'm not talking; only thinking.' The wind-using clone thought back smugly.

"We should go see what he wants." Naruto got up from his stool and by extension, his place from the table. "Non elementals turn to put away furniture and clean dishes. Elementals come with me to see what's going on with Nartai.'

As if rehearsed, everyone got to their separate duties, the six regular shadow clones sealed away the furniture and started to do some tidying while the Elemental release clones followed Naruto to the drop-off into the mine shaft. The whole way down was lit with torches and revealed rock ledges fashioned into a ladder with handholds and footholds while the other side had two separate pulleys with alternating buckets installed.

They all climbed two at a time; the ledges were wide enough to do so and it saved time getting down. At the last fifteen feet, they let go and fell unto a large and springy mattress before sprinting through the tunnel to the cavern where the mining took place.

Upon arriving, they saw Nartai excitedly digging into a wall in the side of the cavern where the suspected gold was. As soon as he saw them approaching in his peripherals, he turned to them and yelled to them.

"Hurry up! Get over here!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What, you find another thread of gold? That's all we've been finding."

"No, no. I think I found the real thing this time! I was digging to continue improving my muscle definition when I struck it! It's stuck in the wall!" He dropped his pickaxe and brushed away some of the dirt, revealing a dull, metallic yellow to the others.

"Goddamn! Nice work Nartai!" Narmizu congratulated before they came over and started brushing away more and more of the dirt, the revealing patch of gold getting bigger and bigger. By the time they stopped, it was the roughly the size of their bodies' upper torso and they found two more of roughly the same size close to it with another twenty minutes of the ministrations.

They continued to pick more and more until they had dug away a lot of the surrounding dirt. But it was still another thing to get the damned large deposit of the precious metal. After a minute of thinking, Nariwa used the **Chika Hira** (Underground Projection) and got behind it and tried to push while Narmizu used a chakra made suiton technique, **Mizu Kasukēdo** (Water Cascade) and softened the dirt around the gold. Then everyone else started sticking their shovels behind the gold and started prying the gold out.

"Go! C'mon everybody! Heave!" Narkaze called in a tone heavily laced with sarcasm. "Go team, go!"

"Just shut up and help too, you dimwit!"

"Take it easy, Nartai. We all know you've got the strongest arms. Geez." He leaned all of his weight on his shovel as well, and that was when the gold start to loosen from the wall. After, another minute, the gold fell out of the wall and nearly landed on the flat of Naruto's foot and crushed it. The metal as described did have the same size as a torso but the weight was completely different.

The earth release clones came out of the wall and gave a low whistle. "Wow."

Naruto sighed. 'Everyone up top, get down here. We're gonna need some help to take out the gold Nartai found in the mine.'

Narsensa replied immediately. 'If you need everyone's help to get out some gold, that means that it's a substantial find, isn't it?'

The original tapped the gold on the ground with his foot. 'Come see for yourselves.'

At four p.m., all the gold was on the ground and Nartai was back upstairs eating a very late (and probably cold) lunch. The three bolder-sized lumps of gold was being stared at intently by the twelve. Not greedily; it was mainly because they were at a loss at what to do with its main problem.

"How the hell are we gonna sell this? We can't even roll the thing into the tunnel, much less up the ladder and above ground." Narken complained.

"Well, at least we're sure that no one can come steal it, even if they knew about it here." Narkaze said in jest.

The others chastised the wind clone for his distasteful joke. Naruto stood a bit to one side, contemplating how to get it out in smaller pieces for sale and purchases. He noticed Narkasai helping to light up the cavern with his fire lighting technique. It was then he got an idea.

"Listen up. I think I have a good idea. What if Narkasai just runs a perpetual amount of katon chakra into it to make them hot enough to melt so it's more malleable to divide and easier to spend and such?"

"Err. Easier said than done." Narishi said. "Even if it does melt, what will be melting into or unto? We need molds, as well some sort of container for the gold to be in."

"Nah. I can do it doc. I just need some shuteye now if I'm gonna do this for more than twelve hours. And a good book for when I'm doing it."

"Still need the containers though." Medic argued.

"Gold is a soft metal. If we could get two or three of the large sized cast iron pots they use for cooking insane amounts of food, we could get it to work. Just tip the pot on it's side, push or roll the gold inside, tip the pot back up then heat the gold. Simple." Naruto clapped his hands with an air of finality. "Narshokku, Narsensa, Nariwa, Narburei, Naruso and me will go on a pot purchasing run before the local smithy closes his store. And maybe get a toll or two to cut the gold into more manageable pieces. Let's go."

At precisely six the next morning, all the clones were hunched over and around five containers. Three of them were large Yabba pots (Rather like stereotypical Witch cauldrons) One was a regular soup pot filled with water and a clone was currently whizzing into a bucket with his back to the others in a corner.

Narkasai rotated his influence in the pots every two and a half minutes, releasing fire natured chakra directly into the gold that rested inside each of the large standing pots, he was barely trying now; the critical temperature was attained and all that was necessary was making sure it didn't drop too far down again. They're were four Narutos to a gold-laden pot. Everyone else, including the now returning relieved-looking Narburei took back up his sturdy iron spoon (It had a fairly deep 'cup' in the middle) and started scooping up what looked like curdled yellow porridge and dropping it into the water. He removed it in another second, pried the gold from the spoon and flicked it unto a large pile of lumps of gold. All of them moved efficiently until at seven a.m., they were feeling the lack of sleep trying to conquer their drive. They moved a good deal slower, the monotony of the task crippling their motivation. It wasn't until they finally struck bottom in all the pots and scraped it clean was when they finally celebrated, even though it was nothing more than half-assed shout/cheer. They yawned in one accord before they decided to head upstairs to bed.

"Wait a minute. Who's going to get rid of the bucket of piss?!" Narburei yelled tiredly.

"Just dump it in a corner then throw the water used to cool the gold on it to dilute it. That'll make sure it doesn't raise a stench." Narkasai yawned.

"Yeah. But who?"

"You do it. You used it last." Naruto smirked.

"Whoop de fuckin' do." The torture clone muttered as he did the task. They all waited on him before they all left the mine together, going to bed and falling asleep as soon as their heads hit their pillows.

When they all woke up later in the afternoon, they were feeling fully rested but decided not to do any work at all. Seeing that it was a weekend, they decided to just go out into the town and mingle a little with others there. To be frank, everyone with blond hair and whiskers everyday was getting a bit too damn repetitive so it was a rest well earned. Going to bed early that night, they decided that it was to finish up some duties in the mine before going to do some real ninja training, not just grunt and muscle work.

 **One month has flown** since Naruto lost ninja status and he couldn't care less. Roughly 1/5th of the gold was out of the mine cavern via the bucket pulley and ready for…spending. The Tenacious Thirteen were sparring against each other in Taijutsu and as expected, Nartai was clearly the best in it, no surprise anyway.

Everyone was using Naruto's original Parrying stance but Tai was using his recently created one that involved one-inch hits and throws. It was mainly comprised of using standard taijutsu but using short hits; he never followed through with the hit, not extending full reach. If the person was within arms reach, _well within reach_ , he would do a standard hit but as soon as it made contact, he slightly withdrew his attacking limb. Instead of momentum that transferred to a person to push them away, they would get hit and still within his range to continue attacking, following through with elbows and increasing distance of a single inch each time. By the time a combo had ended, one had often gotten over eight hits within two seconds.

From each hand or foot.

Naruto had considered entreating him to teach the others but he decided against it. Nartai could keep his creation while he himself would create another style of taijutsu the team could use. Besides, Narken had an extra blade; was he supposed to purchase extra swords for the rest of the T13® as well?

Nartai was savage with his experimental taijutsu and superior strength from doing the most work in the mine, bruising and beating everyone else. If it weren't for their supernatural durability, they would have dispersed from the first hit. While the original didn't say it, he felt like he was getting badly outclassed by his copy. He was proud though.

After an hour's break, Nartai was now practicing on some trees while the clones who had fully healed during the break were now practicing with their batons, going through practice hits on dummies set up while they were trying to trial where were the best places to strike and best striking combos to deal lasting damage. The most outstanding one so far was a scenario if the opponent was within reach to their right. They would strike with full force in the crook behind the knee, forcing the person to fall unto said knee. In the same instant, the baton would be used again on the person's lower back or side and then at the back of the neck or head. Narburei seemed to love the idea and kept thinking the words 'back, neck, head, dead' through the mental connection and it was starting to annoy the others. It was with some finality that they all moved on to a little kenjutsu tutorial, being taught by Narken who had been reading over a booklet he had purchased in Kumo secretly but had accidentally thought about it through the mental connection. As punishment for keeping said 'secret', he was forced to teach them all he had learnt so far until he had progressed further later on.

'…And then push forward in a forward grip. Damn it Narsensa, do it like you really mean it! If you do it like that, all you're gonna do is slowly impale the enemy. Do it more **forcefully**!"

Narsensa tried again and his second attempt was more satisfactory. "Mmm hmm. Alright, better. Now lets move on to the katas and instructions I've seen on page six. Blocking an opponent's blade is best done close to the hilt of your own, where the balance of your strength is best. Okay! I need a volunteer for me to demonstrate! Narburei, since your mind is still very much active, get up here and block my sword!"

They continued to train like this everyday from morning 'till early afternoon with chakra control exercises, with someone taking turns cooking the meals each day. But as the first month drew to a close, Naruto was seriously entertaining the thought of everyone leaving to go somewhere else even more secluded so the could train themselves in Ninjutsu in peace without having to keep an eye out for any far-wandering townsfolk who chanced by and saw them. He brought this up at dinner time back at their tunnel hideout.

They had all dished out their portions of soup independently out of the pot and sat at their usual places. It was a large enough rectangular table. Naruto sat at the head of the table and the rest sat at the sides, six each. The foot of the table was empty.

He graced the table with a quick prayer before everyone started to eat. He ate as well but 'spoke' through the telepathic connection the clones shared. 'Alright, I got something I want to say.'

'Don't you mean something you want to think?' Narkaze jested.

Naruto ignored him. 'We can't get to practice Ninjutsu until we find somewhere even more private. We're still fifteen miles from Konoha for crying out loud. We're going to have to leave and go somewhere else so we can practice the more…destructive jutsus I memorized form the Forbidden Scroll of Techniques.'

Narkasai grinned. 'Heh. We all got memories of that. There were five elemental A ranked jutsus in there, as well as a Ninpo or two.'

It was now Naruto's turn to grin. 'Indeed. While I got the information and jutsu theory up here-' he tapped the side of his head. '-We still need to actually learn how to do it.'

'Right. So where can we go to actually learn A rank techniques?' Narishi asked while sipping his soup.

'I'm open to suggestions.'

'Wave? I particularly remember how relatively remote it was.' Narkaze said.

'Nah.' Naruto countered. 'It's still too close to water country.' He forked his dumpling and took a bite. 'Besides, we need total privacy. If someone so much as sees thirteen people who all look the same practicing lethal techniques, rumors are going to fly.'

Naruso got from his seat and went to the dresser where he had sealed away a map. He retrieved it and brought it back to the kitchen table. He pushed his food to the middle of the table to make some space before he unfurled the map.

"Mmm hmm. I'm looking at a detailed map of residential cities and towns of their locations and estimated population. If we look at the least populated and sparsely established places, that will be the best area to train. Problem is, we won't have easy access to purchasable supplies." He said aloud, since he wasn't eating at present.

'That's the least. We can just purchase heaps of dry provisions and supplies on the way to such an area. So have you found a place?'

"I'm still looking. Hmm…" He ran his index finger over the map as he searched. "The first one is in the Desert- Land of Wind."

'For fuck's sakes, no!' The practitioner of water-use cursed. 'Pick somewhere else!'

'He's right, Naruso.' Naruto said. 'Besides, none of us are used to that kind of climate.'

"Err…" His eyes lit up as he spied an area. He looked back at the scale of the map. "Alright! Found a place. It seems that there is a forested area encircling an expansive meadow. And it's… around twenty to thirty miles from any village and or town. There's even a major river running close by."

"Goddamn!" Narmizu exclaimed. "It's already prefect if it has a major river!"

Naruto ate his last of the soup and burped with his mouth closed before exhaling. "Indeed. That location is certainly idealistic. Where's the closest Ninja village to the area?"

"Its Takigakure. Thirty five miles south-west of the area."

"Shall we have a vote, gentlemen?" Naruto said in a mockery of a pompous-sounding voice.

The twelve all voted unanimously in favor of moving.

"Very well. It's a four to five day journey. We leave day after tomorrow."

 **And that. Now, this chapter for some reason fought me a lot, 'No, that's like romance' and 'No, not enough training details'. I don't intend on going into too much details. How else are you going to get surprised? (And/or frightened?)**

 **I focused mainly on giving Naruto heaps of financial support for the team and Hinata's confidence development. Right now, it's a 'just friends' phase and she needs a lot more confidence around Naruto. I mean, what if they're in the middle of battle and his shirt gets accidentally torn off and she sees his muscle definition? What, she's gonna faint in front of an enemy? I believe that the more time she spends around someone who practically bleeds confidence will make her get some as well.**

 **As for the gold, I told you before that I planned the fics ideas and storyline for a long time and I always meant for him to get it. As far as I can see, a lot of expensive things are in the anime and manga and money talks, right? If you think he's too rich or anything like that, remember that he's a charitable person by nature.**

 **I need reviews people! Over two hundred followers and I can't break more than 5-7 a chapter. It only takes you a minute or two to throw me a bone whereas I need days to think on what to type, what to delete, what to edit, finding time to type and to actually type in the first place. (I'm still a slow typer.) Besides, those who review know I respond to every review and in unique wording. Screw you, copy and paste. Anyway, sorry if this feels like filler. But it'd serve you well to know that when you buy a damn cake, you pick it after admiring the frosting. The flour's the filler!**

 **That's all folks.**

 **Sayonara.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Breaking Limits**

 **I'm going to rant a little. Hear me out.**

 **This fic I read recently started reading, called 'Roku Naruto', has a lot of similarities to mine. It came out years before B.L. and I don't want to be accused of stealing, copying, or any of that.**

 **Naruto gives off a military vibe.**

 **The clones are created with Kurama's youki.**

 **Clones are named and develop different personalities.**

 **Clones 'specialize'.**

 **Clones are used heavily to learn, for example, reading in Libraries.**

 **Naruto uses a 'counter stance.'**

 **Clones and Naruto communicate with telepathy.**

 **That's what I found so far that's near identical to mine. Given the fact that the fic came out before mine, one could say that I'm… (Blows raspberry)**

 **I take inspiration from several things.**

 **For my slight military vibe, I took a slight military feel because… well… I've always admired 'get shit done right the first time' kind of attitude. I mainly like solidarity and team efforts. Guess I got influence from playing team games in Call of Duty, Halo, and Battlefield.**

 **I knew that creating clones from Kurama's chakra was done already so I extended into the 'yin and yang' theory. I want credit for that.**

 **I encounter thousands of different gamers with different personalities and playing styles. You have people who 'run and gun' and those who 'camp', 'grenade happy' and so on. I like to work with different people on teams. That inspired The Tenacious Thirteen.**

 **Using clones to learn… not unique- that's done all the time. I merely believed that Naruto should try to attain knowledge. After all, a dumb ninja is a dead one. Naruto has merely been lucky with his accelerated healing to not get killed before shippuden, along with getting in some lucky hits from time to time.**

 **The 'counter stance' for taijutsu and kenjutsu… I got that from Assassin's Creed. Just wait for your foe to make a move, and then suddenly, he's bleeding out on the ground.**

 **The first I've read of Naruto and telepathy mixing together was Kyuubi Goku. He used it in 'Demons of Konohagakure.' My hat's off to yah!**

 **(Just in case) The hood of his clothing was inspired by Assassin's Creed, his bandana mask and Tactical baton by Watch Dogs. Yep! I play more video games than what is healthy but who doesn't? If I'm gonna stare at a screen, it might as well be… (Cough) interactive entertainment. Besides, I'm thinking that 'Anthurak' got similar inspirations from the same places.**

 **This whole thing was bothering me all of last week. I really made it an aim of mine to create unique fics on the site and to find out that a lot of ideas were null…god-damn it.**

 **Sorry for ranting so much. If you read it, it means you're human and you have a heart.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. But I'm going to be adamant about this. I own The Tenacious Thirteen!**

 **21.**

He drew the kanji delicately on the patch at the waist delicately, taking care to not make any mistakes. A fly buzzed close to his ear but he ignored it; the pesky insect's death could wait until he was finished.

Narburei sat nearby in the shade of a large tree, reading a manuscript he had procured recently. It was titled 'How to get the info from his head: Asking for it or cracking it'. Beside him was a small stack of books and the one on top said- 'How to liberate information as painfully as possible.'

His companion finally gave a huge sigh of relief and swatted a fly in the same action with his palm. "Done!"

The torture clone looked up from his reading. "Really?"

"Yeah!" Naruso held up the patch that had his most recently drawn storage seal. "I'm willing to bet this one holds three hundred kunai just like its twin."

"Impressive! Where are you putting it?"

"I'm putting it just below the hip. That way I can just throw them easier. I also put two more storage seals just below my shoulders on my arms, one each. Those will have just shuriken…two hundred each! All I gotta do is just alternate my arms and I can throw shuriken rapidly. And since I can't miss…"

Narburei whistled. "That is…wow. I'm reading about how you to read people perfectly. I think I'm becoming a perfect lie detector. Everything from eye movement, changes in standing stances, breathing, tiny muscle spasms…I shall become a man of the truth!"

"You're not a man. We're…teenagers…?"

"Yeah. Can we grow, though? Hey Kurama, can we grow?"

" **Hai. Now leave me be. I'm trying to watch Narkasai fail."**

The two clones sweat dropped. "Sadistic bastard."

They stood up and stretched before they organized their things and put them where they were supposed to go. Naruso, the 'trap' clone, carefully put up his seals for later while Narburei sealed away his literature.

The Tenacious Thirteen were currently living in three 'family sized' tents, each of which could house five adults comfortably for sleeping. There were a couple of lean-to's that was erected for other living purposes like eating, cooking or just taking a nap under cover. Occasionally, a member or two would abandon their tent at night just to sleep in the cool night atmosphere.

They were well out of the way, a full thirty-five miles from Takigakure in the area they had had planned for two weeks before. In order not to leave anytime soon, over fifty storage seals were created and the T13 were practically carrying everthing they needed to live for a year, as well as fight a major shinobi war or two.

Copious amounts of shinobi weapons, food, camping supplies, reading and shinobi literature, axes, shovels, all of their gold and of course, toilet paper. As for the toilet, they already dug a pit latrine that worked just fine, along with a substantial amount of deodorizing salts that was conveniently placed inside.

 _They had all that they needed; it had now been six weeks since Naruto had his ninja status temporarily revoked._

The two brotherly bunshin strolled off to the river to watch as Narkasai failed for the umpteenth time to produce a perfected version of his designated 'A' rank jutsu but failing, nearly burning himself to a crisp. Narmizu and 'Doc' stood close by, ready to douse any flames and heal any burns that would occur on his person, knowing that they were needed for the next time he failed.

Which would probably be the next time he tried.

He went through the handseals quickly, ending on tiger. " **Katon: Kaen Kami Jōshō!** " (Fire release:flame god rising.)

Narkasai sharply turned sideways and swept his right hand in a sweeping arc. In the same action, he begun molding pure fire chakra in his feet and his arm, and a violent twister of nearly white-hot flames came into being, surrounding him.

He was the eye of a fire tornado.

Everyone else looked on in awe as a thirty-foot fire tornado surrounded him, the heat making all of them starting to sweat profusely. Naruto wiped off the sweat off his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Oi! Narkasai! HOW ARE YOU HOLDING UP IN THERE?!"

"Gah… I'm trying to maintain it! It's…it's…Gaaaah!"

"QUICK! CUT YOUR CHAKRA FLOW!" Naruto yelled to the fire bunshin that was trying to keep his jutsu from swirling the flames from his control and keeping rotation stability.

"GAAAHHH!"

Narmizu had heard enough. He molded his chakra while using a little extra yang release. " **Suiton: Mizu kasukēdo**!" (Water release: Water cascade)

The water from the nearby river rose up and washed over the foot of the twister, steam rising up immediately. The other non elemental bunshins and Naruto started using a slightly less potent version of the same water technique, finally dousing the flames.

Nariwa went through handseals speedily. " **Doton: Yoroi iwa kokera**!" (Earth release: Protective rock scales) Different rocks and stones sprang to his person like an earthen armor. He moved into the scorching steam slowly, being hampered by the chitinous armor. He came out a minute later, carrying Narkasai over his shoulder. Narishi rushed over to them as Nariwa placed his groaning fire counterpart on the ground.

The medic clone started running the **mystical palm** over the ka-bunshin's burns, trying his best to soothe them as quickly and efficiently as possible. The injuries started to heal as the bunshin sighed in relief, the youki in his body accelerating the healing progress. "(Cough), thanks doc."

"Kami. This is the worst testing yet. I'm getting tired of this shit." Medic said, getting the last of the burns to heal. "If we didn't have Kurama's youki in us, that fire would have burnt you to ashes."

" **Damn right. Even I think that testing was horrible. Horrible for you that is- but funny to watch."**

Naruto shook his head as he looked on. "Narkasai, you better take the afternoon off. Go take a nap or something. Read a book, play catch… just go do something else!"

Narkasai looked to his creator. "I nearly had it this time. I should try again."

"That's the third time you nearly killed yourself. Maybe you should just read up on Katon chakra theory. Or maybe learn a B rank jutsu for the time being. When you have that, you can come back to this technique. It's still beyond you," the Uzumaki scolded.

The fire clone sighed. "Fine. I'm gonna go take a nap. But I'm trying again soon."

"We all know. Besides, who else is gonna put you out when you catch fire?" Narmizu joked.

"…" He smiled a little before he walked off to the tent area.

The remaining twelve looked to one another. "What do we do now?" Naruto asked.

"Meh. We should all separate for the rest of the afternoon and work on our separate stuff." Narkaze recommended.

"Alright. Let's do that. So long as no one tries to learn a forbidden technique without assistance." Naruto agreed.

They all looked to one another tersely before they all walked off, in separate directions.

 **She took a bite of her sandwich** and slowly chewed it, trying to make it last. It had been a long time since she had some food in her stomach and she reasoned that it would be even longer before her next one. All too soon, she had consumed it and her stomach rumbled, pining for more.

But she had none.

She got up off the rock, dusted off her butt and stretched before walking to the top of the knoll. She considered going to the plaza to see if she could 'procure' some more food but she decided against it. She would most certainly be cited for creating a 'disturbance' as was the case last time. She growled a little in her throat, feeling like some despondent animal. Why was she singled out to be the most hated and scorned person in the village? She didn't ask for this.

Her unique orange eyes looked over the little glade in which she lived. A small hut that was barely standing, the bamboo structure dry rotting. She rarely slept in it nowadays, its tumbledown characteristics made her fear that it could collapse on her at anytime. She only kept what few dilapidated furniture she owned in there to protect them from the elements.

The fourteen year old caramel-complexioned kunoichi wore a white tank top that showed off her midriff that was starting to show signs of the early stages of emaciation. She wore a white apron-like skirt that stopped around three inches short of reaching her knees. Her mesh armor was clearly visible through her clothing, either by being longer than her blouse or peeking through the side-slits in her skirt. She also wore white sandals that matched her general outfit as well as white arm-warmers, along with her Takigakure hitai-ate on her upper arm. She had short mint green hair that was adorned by a single orange clip that complimented her eyes by means of being a similar color.

While at first glance, one could say that perhaps she was on an extended mission and missed a few meals during it; her eyes told a completely different story.

Her eyes told the world that she was stricken with emotional pain but to look beyond that; all one would see was a growing determination, like an ember doused with fuel. The fierce emotion soon came to the fore, eclipsing the sadness she normally felt.

She ran to her hut and sealed what little she had in a cheap storage scroll and placed it in small pocket inside her red 'companion sack' and hurriedly cleaned her weapons and placed them in their holsters. She looked around at the hut for one last time before she left it, fully prepared.

She stood on the knoll again and watched the sun set before night fell suddenly. She watched as the lights of the village came on in an effort to stave off the darkness, only succeeding in providing a small halo of light for their designated areas. All too soon, the lights were turned off by their owners who were retiring to bed.

She stepped forward off the little hill, her first movement in hours since the sunset. She placed her foot down, almost as if she had expected something tempestuous to happen.

None did.

She took another slow step, then another, then another. They soon came rapidly, the girl's speed increasing from a slow deliberate walk to a trot, then a sprint. The more she ran, the more her confidence grew.

She finally came upon the centre of the village, overshadowed by a massive tree that was the pride of the village she lived in. She paid it no mind as she flickered from shadow to shadow. The full moon soon made itself clear from behind a cloud, bathing the land in a luminous glow.

The silvery light of the moon made the white of her outfit appear like some sort of fleeting specter, abandoning its hell.

Which was precisely what she was doing now.

She finally came upon a large pool of water which was the secret entrance/exit of the village and she dived in, swimming underwater.

As soon as the ripples in the water were dissipated, a large burly figure emerged from behind a corner and squinted his eyes. His form was that of a rounded stock with muscle and fat in equal amounts everywhere.

"So she's running away, huh?"

He looked around, up and down the street; no one could be seen.

He sighed before he quickly strode over to the pool. "Fuckin' bitch… I'm gonna have teach her a lesson about running away. Again."

He dived in, his ripples and bubbles soon disappeared as well.

 **In Konoha, next morning.**

She went through the five handseals at a steady pace before she placed a now green-glowing hand on the injured dog. The deep cut on the dog's paw slowly closed itself up and the blood which was flowing in a trickle stopped altogether when it did. With her task completed, she stepped back and admired her work.

Her companion strode forward and looked at the paw for himself. "A job well done if I say so myself. However, while you have learnt the jutsu, you need to learn how to go through the required handseals faster and heal the injury quicker. Sometimes, just plain proficiency is not enough. Speed is also important."

"Hai, Naruto-kun." She made a slight bow, elated that he congratulated her efforts while giving her constructive criticism.

Naruto looked to Hinata and smiled. "Alright, let's get this stray to the Inuzuka's and then, we'll go get some lunch."

"Your treat?"

"Nah." Naruto sighed as he looked to his forehead. "If anything, you should be treating me, rich girl."

She chuckled as she took off the plastic gloves before throwing them in the bin. "True. I suppose it would be my turn." She finally turned around and placed the dog in a pet carrier before she started following Naruto out the door with the dog.

"Hold up, hold up. Besides, if you paid for me, it would have been really emasculating."

"Hmm…"

They exited the shed and started walking up the road to the Inuzuka compound. Of late, Hinata had practiced her newly found medical technique on injured strays that she and Naruto found wandering around the Hyuuga-owned soup kitchen, looking for scraps. They usually treated them before carrying them to the animal shelter of sorts that the Inu clan had for dogs.

Hinata's confidence ad all-around self esteem was gradually increasing, nearly making Naruto drop to his knees in thanking Kami for small favors. At least now he didn't have to deal with her fainting around him anymore, inconveniencing himself. Her blushes have also died down in intensity.

The dog was soon delivered to Hana, Kiba's sister and without any further issues, the pair walked to a dango place just a street away. It was mostly Hinata who was a step or two ahead of Naruto, a good sign that indicated her rising confidence. Naruto merely looked around, keeping a cool façade while he kept up his usual henge on his head.

They walked into the establishment through half-hinged double doors that swung back into place by springs. The place was close to empty, given the fact that it was a Sunday at midday. Granted, while Ninjas didn't have any 'rest-day', it could be argued that Sunday was the day they could kick back in their own houses and relax. Right now, most of them were probably sleeping in to make up for lost rest.

They walked up to the counter and each ordered half-dozen skewers of the treat, each having around twenty four of the small, sweet dumplings. They were about to leave when they noticed someone beckoning to them.

Naruto, for his part felt a severe case of déjà-vu and was seriously considering leaving in a shunshin when he saw that it was Iruka.

'Nah. It's gonna make things too awkward. I'm not ready to talk to him yet.' "Hinata-chan, I have to go…"

He didn't even give her a chance to respond as he left in a body flicker of smoke, leaving her with the chunin who was confused about the boy's behavior.

 **The trees rushed up to him** as he leapt from branch to branch, pursuing his quarry. He was in no hurry; he wasn't even moving at his best speed.

His prey was, and he had derived morbid satisfaction of being in full control. He could just move forward at a better speed and the bitch would be dead. Let her go a little further first. That way, no one would ever find her body, and he could just go back home and tell a little sob story about how he was 'too late to save her' from sort of mutilating animal.

And when he caught up with her, she was going to wish she was dead. And he would be only too happy to grant that wish.

 **Late afternoon**

The mint haired kunoichi leapt down to a lower branch, nearly tripping on it in her weariness. She had been fleeing her pursuer for most of the night and all day. She was low on energy and her usual stamina and willpower could only get her so far.

She had no idea where she was going but she had been running there for nearly eighteen hours in an effort to get away from…him.

He was the worst one where she lived, mocking her at best, bludgeoning her at worst. From day one, her life never really belonged to her, knowing that he could have killed her at anytime because he was an influential member of the village. Getting away with her murder would be like a cakewalk.

Her upper torso drooped in exhaustion and she mistepped on the next branch, crashing down through the low level foliage, snapping through brittle boughs and tearing the leaves. She tried to muster enough of her will and strength to correct her center of gravity to land on her feet and only succeeded in landing on only one foot and pushing off forward. While most of her falling force was negated, she had nowhere to redirect the momentum and was about to strike her upper torso, mainly her head.

She put out both hands in front of her on instinct and she grunted as she felt a searing pain in her wrist, going through it like electricity.

She got to one knee weakly while bracing herself up on her relatively uninjured arm, her hurt one hung a bit limply at her side as she hissed in pain. She was covered in scratches and bruises from the fall that was healing rapidly but she paid them no mind.

Her eyes became a little moist as she was just about to give up. Why should she continue? There was nothing pain in this pathetic life of hers. Why prolong her existence?

Her vision started to blur more and more as more tears leaked in their waterworks. She looked forward and saw daylight peeking through the walls of the forest. She hastily wiped her eyes with her left arm-warmer, only to be reminded of the pain still inhabiting her hand.

The green haired girl got to her feet gingerly, standing erect. She had no idea why but she just got the feeling that she had to continue.

'After all, things always get a lot worse before they get better. Maybe it's going to get better now.'

She inhaled deeply, scenting smoke in the air for the first time. Someone else was out there, maybe someone who could help.

She dashed off again before leaping to a high tree branch to continue tree hopping. She was damn well going to leave her village's territory. And if she had to die, she wasn't going to let someone else kill her.

If worst came to worst, she would do it herself. Perhaps it would deny the man the satisfaction of doing so.

 **With T13**

"Smells good, Narsensa."

"Arigato. I tell ya, I just saw those geese and I threw four kunai and all of a sudden, I decided to cook geese for dinner." The sensor clone finally took the geese off the roaring spit and placed them on four large platters on the unsealed table. "This way, we won't even have to unseal and use our meat resources."

Narkaze smirked before he cracked a joke. "Just like Narkasai's goose got fuckin' cooked again this morning!"

"Just shut the hell up! That jutsu is really painful and I'm the caster. When I perfect it, you're the first one I'm gonna…"

The water clone put out the fire while the sensor clone suddenly stopped setting the table.

Naruto noticed the action. "What's wrong?"

The clone held a finger to its lips before pointing to his forehead. Naruto got the hint and thought mentally. 'What is it?'

'I hear something. Coming from the forest.'

They all temporarily held their breath as they listened. They started to hear what sounded like a faint 'thud', becoming increasing louder.

'Is that a wild animal coming? Bear?'

'I dunno,' Naruto thought back, a slight hint of nervousness evident even through the mental connection.

They were all staring at the part of the forest where the noise was definitely coming from. Someone was about to volunteer to investigate when they all saw a girl with green hair flying headlong out of the forest into the meadow where they were.

She landed on the ground a little akimbo and slid to a stop when she saw the group of boys sitting and standing here and there. Who all in one accord, as if by instinct or some silent order pulled a hood over their heads as they watched her. The group and she were thirty yards apart from each other.

She hesitated as they all tensed visibly. Her eyes scanned the area and saw the tents and other camping supplies. This is the hope she ran to? Thirteen boys who were camping out in the wild who were dressed like they could have been a cult? How were they supposed to help her against him? She had to admit, at best, she was skeptic. At the worst, she was disappointed. Perhaps fearful too.

"Hello? I'm…lost." She called to them rather uneasily, trying to get a response.

All she got were silent stares.

"Hello?"

They all looked to each other as if having a silent discussion before one of them strode to the fore, as if he was their speaker. "Who are you?"

"My name's Fu."

"What's your business here?"

"I told you already. I'm lost."

The speaker looked back to his fellows before he looked back again to the girl. "We'll direct you to where you want to go. Where is it?"

She wracked her brain for a suitable place she could say. She couldn't say Takigakure. It would be fairly obvious that she was coming from that place, given her direction from whence she came. "I'm going to…Suna."

"Suna, huh?" The boy said.

"Hai."

"You're quite a bit out of the way. Its seventy miles west of here." He pointed to where the sun was setting to his right.

'Well, he bought it. But what about my un-'

"Since you're not going to get there tonight, want to eat with us?" The boy suggested.

"Well…" She felt dreadfully hungry, and her stomach was suddenly alive, pleading with her to accept the invitation.

She had dealt with poison in the past and the last thing she needed right now were killer toxins in her body. To stick around with someone she hadn't even spoken to for five minutes, much less eat from them-

*Growl*

She gave in to her stomach's demands. "Sure."

The hooded boy stood sideways and held out a hand backwards, as if to say 'welcome.' She walked closer and eventually past him to the dinner table. She was unsure of proper etiquette for this situation so she took a place where she could keep all of them in view as well watch the forest she entered. She was unsure of what he was doing… he could be watching her right now and might be waiting for a chance to strike.

She took off her companion-sack and took her seat at the foot of the table and placed her sprained arm in her lap with her other one on the table. Wordlessly, all of them came and sat at the table sans one who continued placing food on the table. When everything was set, she marveled at the spread of food. She noted the roasted water fowl especially, and the sight of them made her salivate in anticipation; the smell of them even more so.

The final one sat at the table just as the one at the head of the table got up. With a few words, he graced the table and sat again. She was about to reach hungrily when the action drew the attention of all thirteen of them. She hesitated before she did it more slowly and in a more polite manner. They all then refocused on taking their portions.

She quickly took a portion similar in size as to the rest of them and then started eating, all done with her right hand. She stabbed her chopsticks into the meat, not bothering to use it correctly and brought a large piece of duck to her mouth, eating voraciously. Her stomach's hunger had to be assuaged and yet… she felt their eyes on her and stopped altogether.

"Hai?" She asked, a bit irritated and intimidated.

"If you're that hungry, you may have the rest of the duck you carved."

She looked back to the duck and sweat dropped slightly when she realized she had cut away most of it. "Pardon my hunger…?"

The one who had spoken to her gave off the vibe that he was smiling. "We noticed. There is no need to apologize."

She finished eating the food in her plate along with the rice before she testily took up the rest of the duck, watching her hosts. When they did not stop her, she shrugged and starting eating it as well. Her hunger was mostly satisfied; she now ate at a languid pace.

She actually finished along with the rest of them at the same time and sat there, as if waiting for something to happen. All she felt were their eyes.

"Do you have to keep on your hoods?"

"No. It's more of a precaution more that anything else."

"Can you remove them please? It's really bugging me not seeing your faces."

They sat there for a full minute without acknowledging her request. She was considering repeating it when one of them removed his hood. The boy had close cropped spiky blond hair and azure eyes with what appeared to be whisker birthmarks on his cheeks, three each.

She studied his features briefly before she turned to the rest of them. They all removed their hoods as well and all of them looked the same.

"Wha…?"

"Happy?"

She rubbed her eyes as if to make sure she wasn't seeing doubles. "Did you put something in my food?"

"Yeah. Seasoning. You're welcome." The one closest to her said.

She brought her left hand up and gritted through the pain as she performed genjutsu kai. When nothing happened, she gave up. "What's going on?"

The on at the head of the table spoke up. "My name's Naruto and these guys here are my…identical brothers."

"You all look the same, that's true! But you all can't be identical brothers… how can thirteen of you be the same size, being born at the same time?" She pointed at each of them as she spoke, only getting raised eyebrows.

'I told you we should have kept on the hoods,' Narkaze griped.

'We should have just used henges on our faces too.' That one came from the torture and interrogation clone.

'Weeeellll, why didn't you say something? We should have just done that!' The taijutsu user yelled in thought, although his outward countenance was completely calm.

'She would have found out soon anyway. It's close to impossible to maintain henges while asleep,' Naruto argued.

'Narburei, you dumbass, why didn't you mention henges sooner?' Narkaze bawled.

'Enough. What's done is done.' "You needn't concern yourself with that. In any case, you're leaving in the morning. Where will you sleep?"

"I can just sleep on the ground. If I can get a blanket, I'd be perfect." As she spoke, a chilly wind blew across them, raising goose bumps that were plainly visible on her arms.

She suppressed a shiver that ran down her spine. "Make that _two_ blankets."

".." The thirteen hosts looked to one another for another minute before one answered. "Nonsense. You can sleep in a tent. Besides, your left arm appears injured, judging from how you've taken great care to avoid using the limb."

A kunai embedded itself into their dining table right in front of Fu, splitting through and smashing her plate. In that same moment, all of them leapt away backwards from the table and turned to the presumed place the kunai came from, knocking their chairs back in the process.

Fu kept a stoic appearance but her heart sank when she saw the man. As if noticing her internal emotions, one of them turned to her.

"Do you know this man?" Narburei looked at the stocky man with brown hair and black eyes with a flak jacket curiously.

"H-hai. His name is-"

"You. Shut your mouth," the man interrupted. "Good evening."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Good evening…?"

"It seems that you found my runaway niece, Fu."

"It was more like she found us." Naruto chuckled, trying to defuse a potentially horrid situation.

"Hey, look. I'm real sorry about interrupting your dinner…" He trailed off, hinting to get his name.

"Naruto."

"Naruto. But that's my way of letting her know she's in trouble. She's run away from home, again I might add, and she needs to return. Now." The man looked to Fu forcefully, making her flinch a little.

"Fu," Naruto turned and looked to the girl. "Is this true?"

"I did run away. But I only did so 'cause-"

"That's enough. Come with me now!" The man nearly yelled.

"I only did it because the village treats me like shit!" She shouted back, refusing to be cowed. Somewhere along the line, she drew strength in the form of courage from the boys present; particularly Naruto himself.

"I don't do that!"

"You're right! You've treated me even worse, Fukira!"

"Get over here now! Don't make me have to come get you!" He yelled threateningly.

"No!"

Naruto looked between the shouting people. "Is she really mistreated where she lives?"

"She's just a demon spawn, kid! Trust me; you don't want to have anything to do with her! If I were you, I'd probably vomit all the food I ate at the same table with her!" The man sneered in disgust, as if talking about her made him sick to his stomach.

The original Uzumaki looked to the girl, more specifically her eyes. Her orange eyes in the dying daylight spoke volumes of sadness and misery. He looked to the man's dark eyes whose face looked shaded by his unkempt hair. They told stories of a man who probably believed everthing he said and that informed Naruto that everything was as clear as the difference between black and white. Fu was probably right about the abuse and he didn't try to answer in the negative if she was really mistreated.

He came to a decision.

"Well, in that case, she can just stay with me. That way, you needn't trouble yourself with her any longer."

The kunoichi turned to him, eyes wide in a mixture of amazement and shock.

"No can do, boy. It's my job to make sure she remains in the village. Whether or not people might mistreat her, if she doesn't return, she'll be dubbed as a missing Nin. So send her over."

Her eyes let the boy know that she was pleading for him to help her. "No can do." He parroted back to the man.

"Excuse me?!" Fukira growled.

"You heard me. Leave. If she wants to, she'll go back when ready. Not before, and most certainly not with **you**."

"…" The man took out a kunai out of his kunai holster and held it in a forward grip in front of him threateningly. "So that's your final say?"

The Tenacious Thirteen plus the girl tensed. Fu stepped back to her sack and put it on while the boys all performed Transformation Release and in a puff of smoke, all thirteen of them were revealed to be wearing upper torsal outfits. In one accord, they all drew on their hoods and pulled up their feral bandanna masks. The man readied his stance, feeling slightly daunted by the savage-looking mask and professional outfit.

They all stared off for a minute before the man threw all caution to the wind and charged at them, or more specifically, Fu.

She leapt backwards while releasing insects from her sack and removing a kunai as well. His kunai clashed with hers for a brief second, using brute strength to force his kunai inside her guard. Before their blades could reach her person, the insect swarmed the man, many of them landing on his face and started their assault.

Naruso, having seen enough used his right hand and unsealed three shuriken from his left bicep and hurled them at the man. The second they set into the man's flesh, he collapsed apart into water, indicating his use of a water clone.

Naruso turned back to his colleagues. "Don't just stand there. Let's get this guy!"

'We won't be able to use our stronger techniques if he's close to any one of us. If he's at a distance, let loose.' Naruto spoke mentally.

They answered with a nod before Narsensa spoke up. 'I can sense chakra being molded from yang energy coming from the forest. Get ready.'

" **Suiton: Jūsei!** " (Water release: Gunshot) A rapid incoming barrage of globs of water flew out of the tree line, heading for them. They all dodged them before four Fukiras came out, three of them obviously clones.

Naruto inched over to the mint haired kunoichi. "Fu. We're going to work in groups to take him on. You, me, Narshokku and Narken will be fighting the real one. The others will be fighting the clones." He whispered.

"Which one's real? They all look the same." She whispered back, her eyes wandering from one to another.

"He's probably the one nearest the back." 'Naruso. Separate them.'

The trap clone removed a kunai already pre-tagged from one of his weapon pouches and threw it at the feet of the men. They all leapt away from ground zero and in a split second after the explosion, a melee began.

 **With Fu, Naruto, Narshokku, Narken**

Four pairs of eyes followed the presumed original as he landed forty feet away from the others. The lightning clone wasted no time.

'Ox, boar, horse, dog.' " **Raiton: Jibashi**!" (Lightning release: Electromagnetic murder) He held his palms to the ground, releasing visible electricity that danced along the ground to its target. Said man merely jumped to one side, going through a small set of handseals.

" **Suiton: Jūsei**!" He spat out three rapid water bullets at Narshokku, who was too slow to react. They took him in the chest, knocking him off his feet.

Fukira gave a grim smile, knowing that the jutsu had enough to punch holes in human tissue. He was shocked to hear the boy merely groan, trying to get back onto his feet. "What?!"

The boy coughed. "Wow. Really knocks the wind outta me."

The man adopted a thoughtful expression. 'Perhaps they're wearing under-armor. That's why it only buffeted him. I'll just have to use blades.' He pulled out a second kunai and held both out in forward grips, dashing to the group of four. Narken wasted no time and removed his chokuto from his back sheathe and parried the man's knives while holding to the end of his own blade with his steel-band gloves. Realizing that the boy had successfully blocked the kunais, he pulled back one and stabbed it forward.

Narken released the point of his blade and grabbed the kunai with his left hand before the offending knife could stake him in the heart. The man wrenched back the knife from the boy's grip with a grunt and substituted himself with a log, just as Fu's kunai caught him in the chest.

"Damn it!"

Naruto's reflexes kicked in as he fell flat to dodge a savage arced slice of a kunai that swept at the spot his neck previously occupied. He quickly rolled sideways to dodge a stomp and quickly got to his feet, already reaching for his baton.

"Just leave us alone!" He whipped it out, swing it down to release it's catch. It came sliding out, reaching full length.

"Hand over the bitch or I'll kill you all!" He hurled his kunai at the boy who sidestepped to dodge it. He smirked a little before he tugged on something. Naruto saw some kind of string glint in the increasingly bright moonlight and leapt high in the air using chakra, avoiding the kunai that was being held by ninja wire.

Fu threw most of her shuriken at the man but he easily dodged around them as he calculated the blond's falling time and area. Finishing that by instinct, he ran to the place and readied himself to get rid of one of his current problems.

Seeing what the man was about to do. Naruto let go of his baton and sped through handseals. " **Futon: Daitoppa.** " (Wind release: Great breakthrough) He blew a strong wind that increased drastically as he used more and more chakra, right at the man. The man subsequently started to feel like gravity had increased over him but persevered through it, still getting ready to stab Naruto for when he landed.

Narshokku pulled his wits together and ran at the man, channeling lightening natured chakra into his tanto. Just before he carved the blade into the man's back, he abandoned his plan temporarily of killing the apparent leader to focus on the boy who seemingly had electricity crackling on his short blade.

He used his kunai to stop the diagonal slash of the boy's blade. As he blocked the weapon, he felt a harsh jolting sensation that ran through his body and started to numb his arm. He quickly pulled away from the boy, but he felt a kick to the crown of his head, making it crumple on his neck. Bearing through the pain, he grabbed Naruto's foot that was still connected against his head and swung him in a circle twice, hurling the boy into the other with the tanto, knocking them both backwards to the ground.

 **With Nartai, Narburei, Narmizu, Narkira**

The man held Nartai's stare for a second before he had to sidestep a drop tanto slash from a boy who kept up his attack, continuing his slashing at all angles rapidly. He kept dodging as needs be before he kicked him in the gut away from him with a thrust. In the same instant, he elbowed another in the nose that tried to sneak up on him, drawing a nosebleed.

"Kira! Burei! Shit. **Suiton: Mizu kasukēdo**!" (Water release: Water cascade) A strong and steady torrent shot from his mouth at the man who smirked, just before the jutsu hit him.

Narmizu kept up the technique for another five seconds before he ceased. The water seeped away rapidly before the man stood up again, flexing his arms with a laugh.

"Pathetic."

'What the hell?! He took it like it's nothing! He's a clone, why didn't he dispel when it hurt him? Didn't it hurt him?'

The taijutsu using clone must have sensed his brother's thoughts. 'Cover me. I'm going to go in closer.' Without even waiting for an answer, he ran to the man in a half circle, trying to flank him. The man backpedaled, trying to keep in view but had to abandon when one who used the jutsu used it again on him. For some reason, he actually seemed to embrace going against Narmizu's water technique.

Nartai caught up to his side and started letting loose a barrage of punches. The man stopped most of them successfully and shrugged off others. And all of that changed when Nartai stepped in closer to him.

Nartai started one inch punching the man's blocking arms rapidly and just as the combo ended, it restarted with a pointing toe kick to the man's shin. The Taijutsu member started one-hit kicking the man with his knee, then shin, then forward toe kicks to the man's side. In slight desperation, he brought up his arms to block in a 'v', only for Nartai to leave an audible breaking sound in the 'radius' bone in his left arm.

'Nartai! Duck!'

Tai ducked into a crouch, allowing for three kunai to nail the man/clone in the chest and neck, knocking him back a step or two. But instead of bleeding blood, water gushed out of the man's wounds.

"What? Water clone?"

The clone fell on it's back, water pouring from his injuries. However, instead of dispersing, the water stopped flowing and the clone got back to its feet, as if nothing happened.

Narkira, a few meters away clutching his stomach could have sworn he saw something go into the clone, like tiny globules of something but he tried to ignore it. 'Whatever it was, we still need to kill it. Him? Aww fuck it.' He readied his tanto in a forward grip and charged the clone again.

He crashed into the clone's back with the tanto, sending both of them to the ground in a tumble of flaying limbs. Narkira leaned up first and started stabbing the clone all over in his back, drawing rivulets of water. The clone bucked him off of him like a horse and got up as if nothing was wrong. Narkira rolled to his feet and sliced at the man's wrists as he sent a straight punch to his face.

Getting it's wrist slashed did not deter the clone from slamming his fist in the boy's face powerfully, making his vision blur into doubles momentarily. Utilizing his enemy's preoccupation, Nartai began one inch punching the man again in the small of his back. But he would find out that he was undeterreable.

 **With Narkaze, Nariwa, Narishi**

Doc ran his mystical palm technique over a bleeding gash in the wind clone's hand while Nariwa was busy trying to create dents in his opponent with rock covered fists, courtesy of a partial protective rock armor technique.

"It's closing up."

"Hurry up, Doc! Iwa boy over there's getting his ass kicked!" Narkaze ranted in frustration.

Nariwa paused in his assault. "I'm not the one who took a kunai in the arm, y'now!" He leapt to one side as the clone/man stabbed a kunai in the area he previously occupied. He dropped one of his rock-fists onto the man's wrist, making him drop his weapon. Nariwa sent a straight punch to the man's exposed gut, making him cough up…water?

Nariwa tried to ignore it as he punched the man again in the gut, making him double over. As soon as he did, he clapped both of his rock covered fists together over his head and did a double drop axe attack to the back of the man's head. Instead of hitting the bone of a skull, the head caved in on itself as if it were malleable. The doton bunshin slightly gasped in shock and withdrew from him as he toppled. He rejoined his fellow clones and watched the man fall to the ground gracelessly with morbid fascination.

"Is he dead?"

"I dunno, Kaze."

Narishi strode to the assumed dead man and touched his jugular to feel for a pulse. His hand came away wet and he withdrew his hand to look at the bloo…water? He gazed at the man who heaved himself up, completely in one piece and was seemingly covered in perspiration.

The man went through several hand signs in a blur before calling out his technique. " **Ninpo: Moisture saber**."

A water sword swirled into being into the man's right hand before he assumed a stance with it, holding it diagonally in a forward grip. Seeing this, Narkaze cursed under his breath.

"Tch. Water swords are where I draw the line. He went through three brief hand signs, ending on dog. **Futon: Daitoppa!** " He started blowing a strong wind at the clone who merely turned sideways with his sword to the wind, cutting it so it didn't affect him. Becoming increasingly pissed, he started channeling youki and pure yang energy in the technique. Whereas it was a gale strength before, it could now be classified as a category five hurricane or higher, if such a phenomenon existed.

"Son of a BITCH!" Narishi yelled as he fell flat to the ground, trying to stay there to avoid getting blown away. The clone started to get blown back and the technique started drawing eyes from the others who were fighting.

"That all you got, kid?!" The clone shouted the taunt.

Narkaze closed his mouth from full open to pursed, limiting the jutsu from expansive blast to concentrated stream. That final effort took off the clone's head, making it explode in a mini geyser of water. The clone fell to its knees and collapsed apart into water.

Narkaze stopped blowing altogether before hyperventilating to get back some of his air. "Hah! (Pant) You got broke (pant) you l'il bitch!"

The puddle on the ground did not answer… but it did started coming together to reform the clone that stood once more, glaring at the three boys.

"Aww, fuck me!" Narkaze vented in a yell of exasperation.

Nariwa rolled his eyes before taking out his tanto, an action currently mirrored by his two brothers. "No thanks…I'm straight."

 **With Narkasai, Naruso, Narsensa**

" **Katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu**!" (Fire release: Great fireball technique)

The ka-bunshin blew said ball of flames that raced to its target who dodged it easily. Narkasai blew two more which the clone gave wide berths before he formed two water swords and dashed towards the three members of T13.

Inside of a second, he amongst them, slashing wildly, which the boys narrowly escaped injury. Narsensa whipped out his baton and started channeling chakra into it before blocking a water sword. The man dropped his other sword savagely unto the baton, making the sensor clone buckle his knees under the force and weight. Before he could lose the confrontation as well as his life, the man took a dozen shuriken to the chest and gut, thrown by Naruso.

The throwing stars fell out of him, wet with water and refocused his attention on Narsensa, who was smirking.

"Bang."

'Narsensa' blew up in a **Bunshin Daibakuha** , blowing the man to into droplets of water due to the chakra explosion. The sensor clone rejoined his companions via a shunshin of quick steps and closed his baton with a click. "That takes care of that problem." He sighed.

Narkasai tapped his shoulder and pointed behind him to take a look. He did, only to see the a puddle coming together from the water droplets and reforming the man.

The sensor clone sighed. "Really?"

Naruso set his face before limbering his arms. "U **so Ninpo: Shuriken josu**!" (Lies ninja art: Shuriken multiplier)

His hands became like blurs to his shuriken seals, throwing eight of the weapon stars at once, sending a rapid fire barrage into the water clone. All of them hit their mark, or more specifically, the clones upper torso, including its neck and face. Naruso kept up the attack but soon gradually stopped altogether when his arms grew tired.

'I must've thrown about two hundred shuriken into that guy.' He watched as the shurikens started falling out of the man's body like a steel torrent, falling into a growing pile that made metallic noises. Water seeped over the clone's 'wounds' and soon, it was as good as new.

That is, until a kunai with a paper bomb tied to it attached itself in the clone's left eye.

Naruso snapped his fingers to trigger the chakra detonation and the tag exploded, creating a deluge of water everywhere. Some of the water splashed Narkasai in the face. He angrily swiped it away, using fire chakra to dry it rapidly in annoyance and watched the pesky water clone reform itself yet again.

"Damn it! What does it take to kill these things?!"

Narsensa was about to assume a defensive stance when he saw the clone make a fist, giving off an offensive vibe. ' _Great_. We can't even beat a clone, much less-' He squinted as he observed the clone's fist, noticing that it's index finger was missing. "What the… hey! Its finger is missing!"

His two compatriots looked at the man's hand, noting the mishap. "Would yah look at that…" Narkasai's mind back-tracked to when he evaporated the water from his face. 'I wonder if… Hey Naruso!'

'What?' The trapping clone asked irritably.

'I dried some of the water that splashed my face. It could be the reason it's missing some. I need you to distract him while take him out with a fireball.'

Naruso stroked his chin. 'Interesting theory. Let's do it then. Start flanking it from the right while I stay here and throw kunai. Narsensa will try to keep him better occupied at close range and kawarimi when the fireball hits.'

Narsensa, overhearing the plan dashed to the water clone, baton at the ready. The man merely intercepted the baton swing at his neck with a kunai and suddenly, each of the two were fighting for the upper hand in the jabs tradeoff. In the meantime, Narkasai ran as planned to the right of the clone, heading to it's nearest blind spot while readying some of it's yang energy and youki. Naruso started chucking kunai with remarkable precision, the knives taking root in the clone while at the same time missing Narsensa.

" **Katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu**!" He blew a larger fireball than normal at the clone that scorched the ground as it traveled. He the sidestepped a meter right and blew another one and then two meters left and blew another.

In a sense of alarm, the water clone turned his head sharply to see the three fire balls coming straight for him. In his error, he failed to stop the next attack from Narsensa that struck his left clavicle and broke it, clean fracture. Not yet done, Narsensa started beating the water clone to it's knees and kawarimied at the last second, leaving the hapless water clone to a well deserved fate.

A searing twenty seconds later, the fireballs dissipated at ground zero where the clone previously occupied. The three T13 members came wearily to the spot, eyeing the burning grass and the lack of any water forming.

Narkasai started coughing some smoke. "(Cough) Well, now we know how to beat 'em. Let's go-"

Narsensa glared at him. "Before you make some stupid ass comment, let's just go. Period."

 **Thirty minutes later**

Sparks gashed from clashing steel before Fukira leapt away. All fifteen people were growing weary from the conflict and the last of Fukira's special water clones were already dispersed, thanks to the blasted boy who was practically spitting out dozens of fireballs.

"Give up, Fukira. You're leaving here, empty handed." Naruto shouted.

" _If_ he leaves at all," Narkira said. "If he does leave, it'll be in a body bag."

Fukira smirked. "You have no **fuckin'** idea who you're dealing with!" He formed a unique hand sign, forming a snake hand seal but the pinky finger stuck straight out. " **Precipitation clones no jutsu**!"

Thirteen more water clones swirled into being at his sides, making the fourteen teens groan in frustration. "God-damnit! I can't keep using the fireball technique so much! My throat's suffering burns right now!" Narkasai wheezed.

"I have no experience with that. That's out of my realm of expertise." Narishi said. "You will have to heal naturally from the youki."

Narmizu coughed. "I'm the worst person for a fight like this. Even now with the air getting really dry."

Naruto looked to the water clone with his peripherals. "The air's getting dry?"

"Hai."

Fu gained a thoughtful look. "I feel it too. Like the moisture's gone." She snapped her fingers in revelation. "He must be using the humidity to create the clones! That's why they could reform so easily! The water reassembles the clones through the air, by manipulating the chakra!"

Fukira grinned before he chuckled. "Well. And here I thought that you had no brains, Fu."

"Don't call my name in your disgusting mouth!" She growled out. "Especially after all you've done to me! You've made my life hell to live, each waking moment a nightmare there is no release from!"

"You think I'm making your life… **hell**? Everyday I see your fuckin' face is a reminder of what I've lost, seven tails bitch!" He waved his hand at the teens. "Kill them all!" He yelled to his clones.

All of the water clones sneered at the teens before they started flickering with high chunin speeds towards the group.

"Everyone! Release the seals!" Naruto yelled, slapping his own chest and channeled chakra in his seal. "Ichi!"

"Ichi!" (x 12)

It became clear in a moment that everyone was fighting their own separate opponent, whether by trading jutsu, fighting with taijutsu, weapons or ninja art.

It was also apparent that several people were at a significant disadvantage.

Narmizu was one, using water manipulated techniques on his opponent would only make it stronger and possibly raise the humidity in the air, making things worse for everyone else. He was limited to bukijutsu and taijutsu; even using a daibakuha would certainly affect comrades fighting nearby. Narkasai was another, no longer being able to create fireball jutsus. The water clone enemy was close to beating him down into the ground.

Fu was the worst off. Her current speed could not compete with her uncle's or his clones. She also had a water and sub wind affinity, having only a small experience, even with her first. Her insects could not properly fight for either, not being able to keep up with the clone that was turning her into his personal punching bag.

Narmizu took a powerful sweep kick to the head, nearly knocking him out and making him see doubles. In the same second, Narkasai took a haymaker to the gut, getting all of wind forced out of him, coughing up blood droplets. Almost immediately following, Narkira lost a battle of clashing weapons, getting a savage cut in his arm, right to the bone.

"Gah!" the killer clone yelled uncharacteristically before he dashed off to clash again before the loss of blood weakened him too much. He stabbed forward into the clone's gut and left it there. Still screaming, he started buffeting the clone with rapid fire jab punches to it's face, disfiguring it and making it bleed water.

" **Suiton: Jūsei**!" A water clone spat more water bullets at Nariwa, who sunk in the earth to dodge it, using a **chika hira**. The water clone formed a water saber and started stabbing into the ground with it, trying to injure his foe, but to no avail. Suddenly, the water clone was pulled into the ground.

" **Doton: Daburu danto jisatsu**." (Earth release: Double decapitation suicide) Nariwa leapt out of the ground close by and created rock covered fists, before proceeding to decimate the clone's exposed head.

"Doc! Give me some help over here! I'm bleeding freely!" Narkira yelled to the doctor, currently trying to beat the cervical vertebrae in the clone's neck into mush with his baton. He leapt backwards while creating a clone that tackled the injured water clone to the ground before going off in a small level daibakuha. Without pausing to see if the clone was dead or not, he ran to his fellow clone before trying to heal it.

He was close to sealing the wound closed and gave him a blood pill. While taking the pill, Narkira's eyes widened, staring behind him. Narishi turned and looked to see the clone he had 'defeated' reassemble itself from the very air. All around him, he could see others getting injured while the oppressors appeared to be winning.

Naruto could see the same out of the corner of his eyes, seeing his brothers losing the fight. But Fu…

She was close to losing her life.

Her water clone foe grabbed her mouth before it held her up off of her feet, clutching her face tightly. In that same moment, Water ran all over her face and around her head, making a large bubble of water. The Takigakure kunoichi started to scream bubbles, beating weakly at her about-to-be killer, trying to free herself. But the water clone, not one to draw things out, created a water saber with it's free hand to stab her.

Which it did, right through her exposed midriff. The water sword made it's entry and exited through her back, water and blood mixing together and dripping off the blade on the other side.

 **What the actual f*****ccckkkk! Did I write that scene? Am I f*ckin' crazy? Insane?!**

 **No I'm not! At least, that's what I believe. Right now, I feel really bad about writing this, no lie. I mean, Fu is a favorite character of mine, despite her extremely limited screentime. Return in a fortnight, everyone. That's all folks.**

 **Sayonara.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Breaking Limits**

 **Let me just get this cliffhanger off of my chest. That's all. Also, it might be a good idea to play the song 'Point of no Return' by Starset (I don't own it,) during the fight. Mind the volume, though! Trust me, it fits it perfectly.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. That means leave me alone Kishimoto! Keep your ownership and large monetary fortune and I'll stay here, being charitable and poor like Mother Teresa. Now who do you think is the good guy? NOT YOU!**

 **22.**

Death was relatively painless.

Her mind was serene and threatened to leave her body behind. To abandon this mortal form.

"Fu!"

She heard what she figured to be Naruto yell her name and her mind was hers again. That's when she realized that while death was painless, _dying_ hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.

Fukira's clone dispersed his water blade and his water-hold, confident that the girl was finished, seeing that she made no sound. He tossed her unto her back, her body having a small ragdoll effect as her limbs flailed without her control. Not too long after she landed, blood started to pool a little around her body, starting to stain her white clothes crimson.

She looked up the sky and gazed up at the full moon. 'Kinda reminds me of…of…'

Her eyes lost focus as the moon blurred. She soon closed them involuntarily, slipping into oblivion.

"Fu!" Naruto yelled to the fallen girl, staring at her still form. He heard laughing coming from behind him to see the murderous uncle celebrating the death of his niece. The man was all smiles and it sickened Naruto. It wasn't anger; just pure disgust at the man's actions. But he had no time to mourn the girl. There was a chance she could still be saved but right now, some of his brothers lives were still in peril. It made matters worse when he saw the clone that killed Fu was now double-teaming Narkasai, clearly intending to kill their main antagonist. At the moment, nothing was going right.

And this… bastard was watching the girl's death and laughing, the horrible sound of his mirth started to corrupt Naruto consciousness. And in some awkward way of staying sane, Naruto snapped in his fury.

"What the **fuck** is wrong with you? She wanted to be left alone! Why did you kill her?!"

To his surprise, all of the man's water clones and the man stopped fighting the members of the Tenacious Thirteen. Narishi was about to go over to Fu when Fukira stopped him.

"Don't you fuckin' touch her!" The man yelled poisonously. The boy hesitated, not willing to cross the man and instead went to his worst off comrades to patch them up discretely.

"It was about fourteen years ago." Fukira began. "My home village, Takigakure was in the path of the Nanabi. It was as if it were migrating. However, it was bulldozing its path to get where it needed to go. That means we were all screwed. We sent out a few dozen jounin, and I watched them go off on the distance to try and divert it."

Naruto listened attentively, still planning a way to fight the man as he spoke but he could tell that the man was still on edge, not letting down his guard.

"I saw the beast practically swat them out of the way like flies, which is pretty damn ironic, now that I think about it. The biju looked like some big Kami-forsaken bug. My father, an aspiring fuinjutsu user proposed that we sealed it inside an item of power. He gets fuckin' blasted apart by his own creation backfiring. I was fine with that. You see, the man was a prick to me, my mother, and my sister, Fugisei. I didn't miss him. But I was in a sense, the man of the house to take care my mother and my twin sister. I made it my responsibility to be the one always there for them. Mom died twenty years ago though, but I still tried to be there for sis."

The man sounded as if he was crying emotionally internally but he went on.

"The beast was moving kinda slow. Maybe it had gotten injured by us or something. I just don't know why. We predicted thirty-six hours before it would arrive and most if not all had fled the village to get the hell out of the disaster zone 'fore it hit. Then my sister, who was breastfeeding Fu at the time was looking over father's notes for his sealing technique and decides to try it for herself. I pleaded with her for us to go, but she said that she 'wouldn't abandon Taki.' It was her home. She decided that she was born there, lived there, ate there, work there, raise a family there, she might as well die there to protect it. And me with my ideals to never leave her, decided to stay as well."

The man sobbed once and the listening T13 felt themselves being drawn in by the poignancy of the man's tale.

"It was right at the village about five hundred meters away and from where we stood, we could see it preparing some kind of black energy ball or something where we figured the mouth was. We braced ourselves and in some final moment desperation, she tried dad's technique and it sorta worked."

"Sort of?" Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow.

"When sis gave me Fu to use both her hands to do the jutsu, we saw the beast turned into chakra and swirled away into the air. We watched it suddenly turn into what looked like a whirlwind of chakra and then the fine point of it aimed right at her. I jump in front of her to try and take the brunt of it but she pushed me to the ground, I'm still cradling Fu at the time so I lost my balance easy. She stood stock still and the whirlwind of chakra spun it's way right through her chest. I bawled her name when I saw it happen but I realized that it was going _through_ her. I clench my eyes shut to prepare myself for death as well but nothing happened to me. When I opened my eyes a minute later, I saw my precious sister with a big gaping hole in her chest and Fu in my arms crying. I even noticed her temperature practically on fire."

"Fugisei died to save both of you…" Naruto muttered.

The man must've heard him. "Hai. Of course, I mourned her for a while and took care of Fu. She was Fugisei's perfect look-alike and I cared for her as if she were my own." He snarled as he said this part. "Everthing was alright for the first five months until a sensor came back to the village and went straight to the council. I was on it at the time and he was making a fuss, yelling, 'he thought we had killed the beast but it was still alive,' and all that shit. I told him my story and he asked to see Fu. I bring Fu to him and he said he sensed the same aura of the beast, inside the baby girl. And that was when everthing changed. Everyone found out, I was shunned as well as her and I disowned her at first when she was six, mostly to save face. After all, she was still Fugisei's legacy to me, at the very least."

Naruto was steaming on the inside with fury, but he said nothing.

"I still looked out for her for another year secretly, she had so many of Fugisei's character traits that it was uncanny as well as scary. But when she turned seven years old, her green eyes turned into a full pupil-less orange. I couldn't help but be reminded of the beast's eyes behind the armor-like plating on it's face, as well as it's wings."

"And then you started treating her as if she were the beast, convinced that it must be her that killed Fugisei." Naruto said, frowning.

"She _is._ And I am reminded of her death, my incapability to care for my sister _everyday_ , because she exists."

"You're beyond reasoning with." Naruto exclaimed, his face darkening. "She's a human being like the rest of us, but special like me."

"Like you? What the fuck do you mean?!"

"She's a jinchuriki." Naruto face-palmed himself. "Why didn't I realize this before? She's a jinchuriki, like me. The demon was sealed inside her. That means that not only was her mother a hero, but Fu as well."

"You have a demon in you too?!" Fukira growled, taking out a kunai.

"Yeah! I do! Tenacious Thirteen! Let's show him the power of Human SACRIFICE!" Naruto yelled/screamed.

"HAI!" His brothers yelled back resolutely.

"Narishi, help Fu! She may still be alive! Naruso, Narken, Nartai! With me against this bastard! Narkasai, incinerate any air moisture left with your A rank technique! Everyone else protect him while he readies it!"

"Hai!" All T13 members cracked their knuckles dramatically before all of their chakras flared. Fukira ordered his clones to attack and all hell broke loose. Narishi in a burst of speed, sprinted to Fu and grabbed her in a bridal carry and shunshinned away with her, leaving a befuddled Fukira to wonder why they would bother with her dead body. He had no time to dwell on the fact because four of the boys bomb-rushed him. They occupied his space, his time and his attention while his water clones took on the other boys.

Although they were outnumbered, The T13 started performing exceptional teamwork and held off the water clones while Narkasai started molding chakra. On the other hand, Naruto and three of his brothers were adamantly trying to take Fukira's life from him.

" **Uso Ninpo: Shuriken josu**!" (Lies ninja art: Shuriken multiplier)

Naruso started throwing a ridiculous amount of shuriken which the man kept strafe running to the side to dodge, straight into a waiting Nartai's fist he had no idea was coming to him.

The next one to his side made him feel like all of his organs were fighting each other for space before another one to his gut made his stomach try to occupy the space his left lung was. Momentarily gasping for breath, he barely had the capacity to dodge a chokuto that nearly took his head off his shoulders. He quickly kawarimi'd with one of his humidity clones to gain some fighting ground as well as recover a little, making Naruto extremely pissed. Deciding that caution be damned, he and Naruso dashed at the man, each with their tantos at the ready.

They ran intercrossing each other's paths in an effort to throw him off but the man was too experienced for that to work. He predicted who would strike first and grabbed Naruso's hand at the wrist and tried to make him stab himself. But all the work in the gold mine with gravity seals paid off as the boy resisted the attempt, throwing Fukira's grip off of him. Still not out-done yet, however, Naruso lunged forward with his short blade. Fukira backpedaled away from the trapping clone but in his moment, he had forgotten about Naruto who had found his baton on the ground nearby.

Pain erupted in his side and as he turned to look at the instigator, Naruto was in the process of striking his face with the baton. In a marvelous display of reflexes, the man turned his head a little more to it and it struck his hitai ate. The pain still made itself known in his head, but it wasn't as bad as it could be. Through the dizzying pain, his eyes widened as he sensed chakra being built up and his first thought, was that it was _hot_.

 **Meanwhile…**

Narishi and his shadow clone worked over the girl's wound but he was fast becoming doubtful that she was alive. She was so...still, not to mention she was starting to feel a bit cold as her blood volume had thinned.

They stood around her with her body on a high table unsealed in one of the large sleeping tents. Her bleeding had been halted with bandages and gauze but Narishi was doubtful of life still present.

"That sword went right through her hepatic veins that run alongside her celiac trunk. She might've bled to death already." The clone cried.

"I know that already, damn it!" Narishi tugged a little on his hair in worry. "Just keep feeding her those blood pills while I see if there's anymore damage. The biju inside of her might've already healed the stab but only Kurama can regenerate blood quickly…Wait a minute…"

'Kurama!' Narishi yelled internally.

The demon fox's voice came back faintly before it sounded full force.

" **What? I'm busy talking to the clone back in the village. He got lonely and bored."**

'…What?! That's where you've been all this time? Aww, whatever. I got a girl here and I can't resuscitate her. Her name's Fu and she's a Jinchuriki.'

" **A Jinchuriki? Lemme see her, imagine her image."**

Narishi obliged. Kurama puzzled a bit before noticing her hitai ate.

" **Might be the Nanabi. She had a hideout of sorts not too far near Taki. She might be holding back on her power to heal the girl so she could die and reform later."**

'Then she's like a regular human being, then. Is she dead?'

" **Close. You might be able to heal her with youki instead of chakra in a Shosen because her body's used to it by accommodating a biju. Problem is, only Naruto's got enough. I'll tell him. Just keep doing whatever you can to make sure that the remaining life isn't fully extinguished."**

Narishi turned to his clone, who stared back at him. "Don't just stand there, staring, boss! Stop slacking off and live to your purpose!"

Doc blinked at his clone's order before going to help him, confused if it was alright to listen to his own creation like that. 'Damn, I must be really bossy.'

"I heard that! Now do it!"

 **With Naruto**

'Yeah. I understand. But we gotta stop her bastard of an uncle first,' he thought back to his biju. "Narkasai, let's put a rush on that!" Naruto yelled, still in mid-fight against Fukira in tandem with Nartai.

The man was running on the dregs of his chakra now…maintaining his special clones were chakra intensive and to keep using chakra to supplement his movements as well as augment his pain intolerance was getting to be too much for him.

Narkasai winced as he saw Narsensa get an elbow that must have made his teeth rattle. 'Gotta hurry!'

Then, as if like a light switch, 'it' clicked in his chakra coils. 'Yeah! Ready!'

He went through the sixteen hand signs before he turned his whole body sharply and swept his right arm from left to right. " **Katon:** **Kaen Kami Jōshō**!" (Fire release: Flame God rising)

The fire tornado swirled into being from his feet to his waist before it grew sharply to the apex of it's evolution. All the water clones and Fukira's eyes widened at the expansive twister of flames that spun with the boy in its center. Said boy gritted through the pain of his body burning again but kept it up, knowing that it would pay off.

He finally screamed as the pain became higher than his tolerance but he instead turned it into a yell of determination and added even more power to it...the height of the tornado of flames growing from thirty five feet to fifty with a larger radius than before.

The intense heat generated because of the technique made the water clones nearby start to yell themselves at their woe as their structure weakened and dissipated when the flames licked out from the twister into the surrounding area. Not wasting any time, Nariwa created a mud wall that the remaining members of T13 huddled behind.

Save for one.

Still engaging Fukira, was Naruto.

The man slipped up in his exhaustion and fell victim to the hardest upward curl punch the boy had ever made in his life, straight in the stomach. Quickly spawning a shadow clone as the man doubled over, Naruto then made a small hop and brought his right knee unto the back of the man's head, making him fall flat as his head was wracked in excruciating pain. The shadow clone went behind him, grabbed the man's wrists and hauled him up again. As he stood, staggering with his wrists in an iron grip, the clone kicked the man in the small of his back with his knee. The man straightened and bent backwards in pain.

"Gah!"

Naruto ducked his head slightly like a boxer and raised his fists and started a sixteen-hit rapid fire jabs to the man's exposed gut and groin. At hit number seventeen, he used a large amount of chakra in his right fist to supplement his strength and plunged it into the man's stomach, the man coughing up a large amount of blood. The force was so strong that it actually dispersed his clone that was holding up the man. As the man was about to topple backwards, Naruto firmly stepped on the flat of the man's feet before pushing him down.

The medial malleolus bone just under his ankles was snapped and severed the flat of his foot from any action in his leg. He would never walk again and that knowledge in the back of his head didn't make things any easier on his psyche as he nearly shredded his vocal cords in his misery, screaming in pain.

As Narkasai let his jutsu destabilize, the jutsu collapsed into itself and caused a miniature firestorm let loose over the area. All the tents and The Tenacious Thirteen was being protected by the **Doryukeki** but Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the fallout of the technique was about to flow over where he was standing. Acting on base instinct, he yanked up the still-screaming man and hauled him over his back like an animal cloak. Ignoring the man's screams in his ear, he then turned his back… the man himself to take the brunt of the flames.

The next ten seconds were like torture for Naruto, but not as much as it were for Fukira. Naruto gaze out in front of him, noting how the flames were being cleaved apart by the so-called convenience of a human shield. As soon as it let up, Naruto dropped the smoking man back to the practically burning ground, Fukira's half-lit. The boy sprinted back to the tent that Fu occupied as the members of T13 went to work, trying to put out the flames of the burning grass.

 **Thirty minutes later**

Weary orange eyes opened to see the lit lantern hoisted in the roof of what seemed to be a tent. She blinked twice, trying to gather her bearings.

"Am I dead?"

"Hai. You are." A deep voice said.

"Wah!" She sat up quickly, frightened as she gazed around. "Oh Kami! No!… oh." She calmed down as she saw four boys in the tent with her. They all sat on a futon and stared at her. One wore gloves, one had his hood up, another had on gloves and the last had a huge blanket wrapped around him, completely covered.

"You gave us quite a scare, Fu." The one who had on plastic, disposable gloves said. "Especially me. I really thought you kicked the bucket. Although Naruto was confident that you'd live."

"But…how?"

"You really do have a demon sealed inside of you, Fu." Another one said. He quickly told the story Fukira had told him and by the end of it all, the girl's eyes were watering.

"So that's why, huh. That's why the village treats me so? I never did nothin' to them-"

"That's a double negative," The hooded one said. "So you're actually saying you did something."

"Can it, Narkaze. Thinks he such a wise-guy."

"Just like you, Naruto."

Naruto kicked him out of the tent. "Sorry about that, Fu. He was also the one that tried to scare you earlier." He poked his head out of the tent. "Go help the others clean up, Narkaze!"

"Screw you!" The shouted reply came faintly. Naruto merely brought his head back inside and retook his place on the futon. "Sorry about him. He thinks he's funny. Anyway, so Fukira actually loved at first but fell into a biased hate because he believed that the Nanabi, or you, killed your mother when he had vowed to himself to always protect more than himself."

"The Seven tails? Guess that's not the worst thing that happened to me. The worst was getting stabbed in the gut. So the Nanabi healed me?"

"No. It was my tailed beast, the Kyuubi, and my brother here, Narishi." Naruto side hugged Doc around the shoulders in his gesture, who grinned at the recognition. "I had to use a bastardized **Shosen no jutsu** with Kyuubi's youki instead of chakra. It was really hard to do 'cause I still can't do a mystical palm properly."

"You have one sealed inside you as well?"

Naruto's face grew grim. "I don't consider him 'one'. I also don't consider him as an 'it'. I think of him like a friend, family even. Like an uncle, a brother maybe."

She frowned at the idea. Still, if his 'friend' had healed her, she didn't mind. "Arigato. Speaking of uncles, where's mine?"

"He's outside and in a whole lot o' pain. He looks like he might die soon from his wounds." Naruto answered. "Narburei thought it would be best if you two got a little closure, as well as frightening him with the fact that you're alive." He grinned widely.

She smiled back and in that instant, Naruto admired how her face radiated happiness and mirth and swore to himself to strive to see it again. The moment ceased when she looked down at herself and noticed that she wasn't in her clothes but instead what looked identical to Naruto's.

"Uh, where's my clothes?"

"They were messed up really bad with your blood so one of my brothers is washing them with cold water and bleach. You should have them back clean tomorrow."

"So whose clothes am I wearing?"

"Mine. Now let's go."

She let herself off of the high table and followed him out of the tent into the moonlit night. The air was filled with the bustle of activity as different boys were shoveling up what looked like ashes and burying it in a large hole while others were sealing up miscellaneous items and carrying them off to another of the tents. There were what looked about fifty of them and her first thought was where they had all come from.

Her second thought was questioning herself on what could have burnt up the land this way, and leave smoke and steam rising up off of it.

"What…who did this?"

Without looking back as he led her, he answered. "It was my brother, Narkasai. He used a powerful fire jutsu to stop and destroy Fukira's clones. He was badly burnt and he was the one who was covering himself with a blanket."

"He must be crazy strong, then." She rubbed her midriff and was faintly surprised to feel no pain. 'Wow.' "But wouldn't the blanket rub up on his skin and make it worse?"

"Hai. He was getting healed by Doc, the one who spoke to you first. When he noticed you were waking up, he quickly put on the blanket so the sight of his burns didn't offend you."

"Hmm…I don't what to say. All of you sound really noble and chivalrous. Dying qualities, and all."

"I…We try." Naruto smiled. "Anyway, here he is." He stopped walking and held out his hand to stop his companion three foot shy of what looked like a broken and badly burnt figure of a man. She stared on in morbid fascination as the blackened person wearing what looked like burnt rags groan as he opened an eye.

"Just kill me and be done with it, brat," the man rasped out. He did what looked like a small double-take as he eyed the girl next to the boy. "What…what the fuck?! How the fuck are you alive! My clone killed you! I saw you bleed out! You're dead!"

Naruto smirked internally. 'Priceless. Wait till I share this memory with the others.'

"Obviously not, 'cause I'm still alive, you prick." Fu said evenly. "I… you used to love me. We were like family."

"Yeah. _We were_. That's all. You took Fugisei from me, you demon bitch!" He coughed horribly and cleared his throat. "At least when I release this mortal form, I'll go be with her."

"No you won't. From all accounts, she's somewhere good-… the woman I hope I can grow up to be… while you…" She trailed off. "You belong in hell."

"Anywhere, you're not in, even if it's the stomach of the Shinigami…" The man trailed off as well as his eyes dimmed. "Then I'll gladly go." His exhale grew weak and became final as his life fled from him, a broken man.

She turned away, a single tear came to her eye. She angrily swiped it away as she sat on the ash covered ground, not caring if the clothes she wore got soiled. Naruto squatted next to her and put an arm over her shoulder.

"How do you feel?"

They were like that for ten minutes before she finally answered.

"I don't feel anything. I loved him, hated him, neutral to him…I just don't know."

"Hmm. From what I can tell, he still loved you. He just hated the Nanabi and something in his mind just wanted to find some reason, some medium to avenge your mother on."

"…My mom sacrificed herself for me and him. If not for anything else, that's worth something. I'm not gonna desecrate his body. He treated me good for the first half of my life anyway."

"Even though he stabbed you through a vital point less than an hour ago?" Naruto smiled.

"Uh huh." They got back unto their feet and dusted themselves off.

 **The next day, Noon**

A single rock marked the grave out by it's lonesome, only seen if one were to look for it. One side of the rock had the number '7', painted in white and the other side, black.

That was it. No name, no date. It was practically an unmarked final resting place, were it not for the stone.

 **XxX**

They all sat around the table that had a large blue tarpaulin shading it. All fourteen teens sat around it, sipping cold water silently, as if they were waiting for something to happen. None did but Naruto and Fu looked expectant.

"So, what happens now?" Fu asked.

"That's what I wanna know too." Narkasai said, wincing as he moved his hand to his cup. "I nearly burn myself to death getting caught up in someone else's affairs."

"About that… I'm really sorry for getting all of you involved. It's just that-"

"You saw us, saw help, got a meal, we know." Naruto said.

"Yeah, and nearly all of you get hurt in some way or another."

"Hurt? Injuries? Mine are really superficial and my brothers heal fast. Narkasai's gonna have to go easy for another week for his condition. What we want to know though, is what are you going to do?"

"Thanks a lot. And I'm sorry for getting you all involved."

The T13 replied in a chorus of 'Douitashimashite', which slightly creeped her out. "I was wondering if I could stay a little while longer. I don't want to go back to the village, but I want to put it off for a little while longer. The longer I stay, the more likely they are to declare me a missing nin and start hunting me and put you all in more danger."

"That's fine. We got a couple of 'singles' tents in storage. You can get one of them to sleep in." Naruto replied.

"Sounds good, err, Narburei, is it?"

The original Uzumaki sweat-dropped. "It's Naruto."

"All of you look the same! You all wear the same clothes? How am I supposed to know you all differently? Come to think of it, I really don't believe you are all brothers."

"We are, in a sense. I'm Naruto, but these are my clones. But they're like my own flesh and blood and that's what makes them my brothers."

"Hear, hear!" Narkaze cheered loudly.

"I'm ashamed to call _him_ my brother." Narishi said, pointing at the wind using clone and they all laughed, save for the brunt of the joke, who scowled heavily.

They all introduced themselves to the girl and showed them their respective crests they wore on their chests. She realized that they all had separate talents in their respective fields and asked Naruto what he specialized in.

"I'm a bit of a 'jack of all trades.'" He answered simply. In his mind, it bugged him a bit and realized that he would soon need to do something about that. "Anyway, we call ourselves the 'Tenacious Thirteen'" He announced with a flair, trying to change the subject. It worked like a charm as they all cheered. Fu, on the other hand, was wondering what kind of boy Naruto was to create a team of clones, call them his brothers and live in the wilderness.

What was up with that?

 **By the end of a month,** all fourteen of them were living life out in the meadow as if they were born there. The T13 had gotten used to the girl's presence and the girl, used to them. She knew them all by name and could identify them by their unique walking gaits, manners of speech, different builds and occasionally, if needs be, their symbols on their crests. The symbols were circles over their hearts with white backgrounds with the focus of their abilities were represented by the content inside the symbol boundary. The symbol was also present on their backs, below the red writing of **'T13'.**

Narmizu was that of three water waves, each bigger than the last, the symbol dark blue.

Narkasai was that of a flame with flickering symbols around it, the symbol red with yellow edges.

Narkaze was that of a whirlwind of black and threads of white inside it for emphasis.

Nariwa was that of an oval-shaped brown boulder, with a few cracks at the edges and a large one down the middle.

Narshokku was that of solid zigzag figure that was done in black that arced out twice in smaller bolts.

Naruso was that of two kunais, shaped in an 'X' across each other. They were black with specks of red.

Narishi was that of a single '+', done in a radiant sky blue.

Narburei was that of a red simple skull with a black 'X' over the forehead.

Narsensa was that of a small standing figure of black with a green two concentric green circles around it.

Narkira's was that of a gray person's figure but it had red targets over the head and heart locations.

Narken was that of four swords set diagonally alongside one another. They were all black with grey edges.

Nartai was that of a black fist, pointing upwards.

Naruto was that of a red Uzumaki swirl inside his crest.

Their days were mainly composed of training and reading/research on their specialties. For some unknown reason, Fu and Naruto tended to train together more often than not. They themselves just felt it 'normal' to be in each other's companionship and no one made a big deal about it. Fu was taught all of the wind and water techniques Naruto knew to bring her up to speed. She was the one to have asked him for such a favor and Naruto being who he was, didn't refuse. If she was going to go back home soon, she might as well be able to look out for herself because no one else was going to.

She even started using the gravity seal on herself but she was currently on 'Ni.' She was making fast progress but her Jinchuriki's resilience could only get her so far.

Speaking of which…

"Pass the rice please, Narsensa."

The sensor clone obliged and Fu took it from him and shared out another helping of the food to her bowl. "What did the Kyuubi say?"

Naruto swallowed carefully before speaking. Having only to think to his brothers was a luxury but with her around, it felt as if he was handicapping himself. No doubt his brethren felt the same way. "He says it might be another six months to a full year before the seal weakens enough so you can communicate with the Nanabi."

" **Come to think of it, Nana should have sensed my presence inside you and tried to make some contact from her end. Whatever seal that's on the girl, it was botched and is flawed."** Kurama pointed out.

"He also says that the Nanabi should have tried to make contact already because of Kurama's presence is in proximity."

" **Ask Fu when she's leaving."**

'Really? Right now?'

" **You sound regretful. You're going to miss her, correct?"**

Naruto cut the mental connection, much to Kurama's chagrin. The Kitsune decided to use another connection through the clones to see what would happen, unbeknownst to Naruto.

"So, Fu, when are you leaving?"

' **I knew it. He does sound like he's gonna miss her. The boy's latching on to a kindred that suffered from a Demon sealing.'**

"I'm thinking ten days. I'm in no hurry to go back to the hovel I lived in." She scrunched up her nose as she recalled it.

"Oh? I'm leaving right about then, too." He would be damned if he didn't see her off and hopefully learn where she lived.

"Why? Isn't this your home? You and your brothers live here, don't they?" She asked in between mouthfuls. She had intended to visit when occasions permitted her. Or rather give her a chance to skip out for a week when ready.

"Err, correction." Nartai butted in. "He, or rather we, hail from Konoha."

"The Village hidden in the Leaves? Then why are you here, then."

"He got suspended from ninja duties for three months." Narkaze chimed in.

"What?"

"Long story." The original Uzumaki shrugged.

One question and a long story later, night had fallen and they were all around a fire penned in by rocks, lying in their separate and respective sleeping bags. "But that's not fair, is it?"

"Of course it was." Naruto defended the Sandaime. He was perfectly just and there was some leniency. Besides, if I wasn't suspended, it's safe to say you would have been killed by your crazy uncle. And not the good and funny kind of crazy."

"And I guess I wouldn't have met all of you either."

"You could have been more specific, y'know." The wind clone said. "I wanna see if boss can blush."

Fu quickly worked out what he was saying and blushed herself. 'If I had said I wouldn't have met 'him'.' Her counterpart bit the inside of his cheek to hold his poker face so he could suppress his own blush. "Uh huh. Alright, I think that's enough for tonight. Goodnight everyone."

They all answered their own unique responses and everyone snuggled deeper into their bags for more sleeping comfort. They all soon fell asleep sans one.

The lone girl stared up at the full moon, remembering that it was scarcely a month that she nearly bled to death under the very same, looking at it. She had come far during the month and as far as she was concerned, she considered all of these boys her friends.

It had been years since she had a hug, or got any form or a whisper of any emotional or friendly contact. She had thought that only insects could really be her friends and humanity as a whole was unredeemable, but held out longer, hoping for something, or rather, someone to prove her wrong.

Turns out she found just the person when in her lowest moment. He was there to protect and fight for her when she needed asylum, he fed her when she was hungry, refreshment when thirsty, cared for her despite her origins, healed her when she was on the brink of death and above all, became her friend when she needed one the most.

They all were but Naruto… he was the real deal and from him… they all got their ideals and moralities from.

She blinked as she eyed what looked like pock marks on the moon. 'The whole thing kinda reminds me of a rattle I once had. That was when Fukira told me that mom had gotten it for me when I was born.'

Her breathing slowed as her eyes gently closed. In no time at all, she was in dreamland, where the sun always shined radiantly without blinding her and her mother was alive. The funny thing was, she had everything imagined, except for the face.

 **One week later –( Eleven weeks total have passed)**

He shook her at the shoulder, trying to rouse her awake. "Hey. Wake up."

She mumbled something incomprehensible in her sleep. He shook harder and she opened her eyes, completely groggy. "Wha…what time is it?"

"It's about seven in the morning. Go get cleaned up. We have to get going."

She crawled out of her blankets and got out of her tent, followed by Naruto. She looked to the east and shielded her eyes with the palm of her hand as the sun seemingly glared at her. She gradually opened up cracks in her fingers and glared right back, soon becoming increasingly used to it. She yawned as she saw the small camp of them bustling with morning activity.

"Ohayou."

"Ohayou, Fu. Now go freshen up."

"Why so urgent? Ugh."

The Uzumaki looked as if he knew a secret but wouldn't tell. "Just go."

A quick bath in the river later, Fu came back fully clothed with a towel around her neck, only to find the T13 looking anxious. If only she knew what was going on in their heads.

'Think she'll like it?'

'Of course. But should it be more?'

'What the hell do you think she'll need more than that for, huh? Just one could set her up for the next ten years.' This came from Nartai.

Naruto wrung his hands in nervousness. 'Do you think she'll think I really like her or something just for doing this?'

Narkaze rolled his eyes. 'Nah. We're all just ridiculously good friends. Of course she'll think so, dumbass! But not in the romantic kinda way, y'know?'

'Of course, of course.'

'But I could be wrong...' Narkaze added as an afterthought, which only served to break the little nerve Naruto had mustered.

"Uh, guys? Why are you all standing around like that?" She raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Oh! Uh…" Naruto trailed off.

"Boss here wanted to give you something," Narkira replied, helping his creator out of his nervous fix.

"Really? What is it?" She turned back to Naruto, staring him right in the eyes. He immediately 'retreated' to his tent and came back with a large roll of palm-sized seals. He peeled off one and gave the rest to Narishi to store again in a new place.

"This is…a seal-" Naruto began.

"She can see that, genius." Narkaze muttered.

"As I was saying. This seal, is to make living in your village more tolerable. Since we planned to leave today, I thought that you should have it. My brothers agree."

"Oh…err, sure! What kind of seal is it?" She asked, eying the tag a bit distrustfully. She already had one seal mess up her life already. Fu had no need for another to finish the job.

"Money," he said simply.

"Money? But I don't have any money to put in a storage seal." She immediately began to think of her 'home sweet home'. Now remembering it, she loathed the idea of having to return. 'At least Naruto's gonna follow me most of the way since he's gotta go home too.'

"Hai. It's a storage seal. But it's already _prefilled_ with money."

"Really?! Awesome! How much?" She reached out for it but the boy held it out of her reach, giving her a dreaded head-shake motion dubbed as 'tsk, tsk, tsk.'

"Is that any way to behave?" Naruto teased.

"C'mon, you're giving it to me, aren't you?" Seeing that he wasn't going to budge, she relented. "May I have it _please_?"

"Alright. Hold out your right arm."

"Don't you mean 'hand'?"

"No. I mean **arm**." He grabbed her hand at the wrist and slapped the seal right on her arm at the biceps where she normally wore her hitai ate. To her surprise, her arm burned at the contact similarly to when she got her gravity seal. She wanted to pull away before she realized that the seal was tattooing itself on her. After a minute of the ministrations, the process was completed and Naruto removed the seal from her arm and dangled the now blank paper in her face where it soon turned to her ash and floated away. "And that's it."

"You could have just said that you were going to tattoo the damn thing." She rolled her eyes when she saw him grin smugly. Without further ado, she attempted to unseal something from it. A small gold lump emerged from it in a small puff of smoke and she observed it. "What is this?"

"It's gold."

"Gold? But that's much more valuable than just regular ryo-"

"Yeah. Of course it is. Just one of those pieces is supposedly worth ten thousand ryo. Adding the piece in your hand, you've got a hundred of those pieces."

"A hundred pieces?! But that's…one-!"

"-Million ryo. You're welcome."

Birds flew out of trees at the girl's next shout and life was squeezed out of a boy soon after in a crushing hug. Despite the pain, he enjoyed it.

"Thank you, thank you, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou-" She stopped for breath and was about to continue when Narsensa shushed her.

"That's quite enough. More than enough 'thank you's, one might add."

She blushed a little before she realized something. "Wait a minute. How did you even get this?"

"Remember when I told you about Kimyō Town?"

A short explanation, pleas for a 'bit more' and unimportant details later, the mint haired girl had completely settled down. Naruto was really one for planning ahead and had given her good reasons why she couldn't give more. He had been truthful in the past so she didn't doubt his word that he said that he was going to share a good portion of it. He had even suggested that she create a henge alter-ego in the village to spend it so as to not get cheated or be the victim of potential robberies…should they ever find out that the precious metal was sealed in a near invisible seal under her hitai ate.

They all had a quick breakfast and the two Jinchuriki packed their things as well as provisions for their trip back. They were soon ready to leave at ten a.m.

The farewell was really painful for Fu. It was really hard for someone to wish for something all their life and when they got it… they had to let it go. She told them goodbye each of them personally and they all hugged and shook hands and the like. Naruto didn't make such a big deal about it, seeing that he could always contact them through the Seal. The Kunoichi was still ignorant of this fact but she shrugged it off as due to the fact that they were all him when everything boiled down to the basics.

"I promise I'll come visit."

"Yeah, yeah, don't be a stranger than all that." Narkaze jested. "But frankly, with you around, I started to lose weight."

"Ah! I don't eat that much!"

"Yeah… you do."

She punched him in the shoulder which he rubbed trying to dull the pain. "Geez. Stop pretending it's not true."

She was about to demonstrate the concept of facial-rearrangement with her fist but the the assassination specialist tried to promote more good-will by trying to calm her down on the fact that it was a joke. Saying 'goodbye' one last time, Naruto and Fu hefted their things and dashed back to the forest and started tree hopping away back home.

Leaving the clones to start their more…destructive training.

Releasing their gravity seals, the pair were like blurs through the trees making good time. Naruto followed Fu a bit out of his way to Taki and they were almost upon it by sundown. Their jinchuriki stamina was a wonderful thing and coupled with enhanced speed, the girl felt as if she had flown back to the village. She made a mental note to start training with her gravity seal at a more 'serious' pace.

She felt regret as she saw the Great Tree of her village tower over surrounding trees and stopped Naruto, not wanting to trip any sensors that might endanger the two of them-…Fu especially when her situation was already compromised.

"That's far enough, Naruto. You can't follow me anymore."

"What?! Already? Are you su-"

"Yeah. I'm sure."

"Oh." He really didn't want to leave her company just yet and was already missing her. He couldn't tell but she was feeling the exact same. "Maybe you could visit me in Konoha or I could visit you here, huh?"

"Sure."

The two just stood there for who-knows-how-long, looking at every which way but each other. Fu was the first that came to first and before she could hesitate or lose her nerve, she planted a big kiss on the boy's cheek before she bounded off to her home, like a fleet-footed gazelle.

"'Bye Naruto-kun!"

That was the last he heard of her before she practically melted into the tree line. Despite her attire of white, she was nowhere to be found. The stunned boy brought his hand to his face and tentatively touched the cheek where the contact was made and blushed.

"'Bye Fu-chan." He whispered. His words was barely heard by any creature that chanced by as the wind blew, rustling the leaves on the trees.

He looked to where she had run off to and briefly entertained the idea of trying to catch up to her but soon thought better of it.

'I probably shouldn't…'

He turned slowly and started tree hopping back to Konoha. If one thing was sure, is that what he had once considered a curse of perfect memory was now only a blessing. He would never forget the girl with the smile he loved seeing. Even more so, he would never forget that kiss.

Sigh. Life is good.

'And to think, if I hadn't gotten suspended, I never would've met her. Funny how life works out.'

He soon made camp for the night and had a small supper of dry non perishable food and went to bed early. His dreams were dominated by the girl with orange eyes and mint green hair who whispered in echoes but nothing logical was heard.

 **XxX**

"…Alright sir. You're free to enter."

The man nodded as he walked inside along with his family. The two gate guards, Izumo and Kotetsu stared at the family for a while before going back to full attention. They considered themselves important and vital to Konoha for being 'guardians' and screening out all the undesirables from the 'good' people so they tried their utmost best at all times to do their jobs well. Besides, it was relatively safer than doing missions and the pay was still the same.

Izumo gazed out through the exit of the gates. But for some reason or another, he missed seeing something strike his face and a strange warm and somewhat sticky liquid run all over his face.

"What the-…egg?!"

"Hmm?" Kotetsu turned to his companion and promptly got an egg to the face as well. To add insult to injury, they then got egged in the crotch as well with marvelous aim, making them appear to have pissed themselves.

"WHO THREW THAT?!" Kotetsu roared before looking in the direction of where the eggs came from.

Inside the village, was a small boy with brown hair in a red t shirt and blue shirts. He also sported a play-mask. But that wasn't the most outstanding thing about the boy.

He was mooning the two chunin with his shorts around his ankles while slapping his own butt. "Ha ha! Take that yah big dummies!"

Izumo and Kotetsu…completely blew their stacks.

" **GET 'IM!** "

The two men abandoned their post and chased the boy who quickly pulled up his shorts and began sprinting away, creating quite a public spectacle. Others who watched the scene laughed at the scene but the two men were unheeding as they ran after the boy to give him what for.

A boyish figure with a hood over his head and a crest over his heart of an Uzumaki swirl came out of the bushes outside the gates and walked in, whistling a merry tune. He whistled all the way back to his home and entered through what seemed to be a new door. He shut it and stretched out on the bed inside the only bedroom of the apartment and sighed deeply.

"Well, that's that. Kami, I've missed my bed."

He yawned and soon went to sleep. Soon, a small boy wearing a mask entered the apartment via the door, removed the facial obstruction and un-henged himself, revealing himself to be Naruto's clone. The clone smirked a little before he dispersed himself. Although Naruto was asleep, the memories let every clone of the Uzumaki, far and wide, that he was back in the village. The remaining twelve in the wilderness momentarily smirked before going back to their training.

 **The rest of the week went by slowly** and Naruto was nearly going out of his mind with boredom. Just sit in his apartment, eat, do pushups, eat some more and sleep. It wasn't in his nature to just sit around.

'No wonder Kurama ditched through the mental connection to talk to the clone I left here. Poor guy must've been bored to tears.'

He had fully analyzed the clone's memories and frankly, it was very entertaining. Although the clone had given some reports on what it was doing, he had purposely left out one would call 'the interesting part.' He hadn't expected the 'Hinata development' but if one thing was sure, it started to raise a lot of questions in his mind. Such as the one that he had created the team based off his distrust of Konoha's genin squad creations. If he now had the T13 created, did he still have to put up with team 8, or more specifically, Kurenai's bias, Shino's aloofness and Hinata self-esteem? Or now that the team looked like it was on the right path for improvement, he no longer needed The Tenacious Thirteen?

He wasn't, by any means, to tell his brothers to off themselves so he could get their knowledge. He had bonded with them but bringing them on Konoha's missions in the future could cause unforeseen problems with questioning. He could guess a few of them though.

Where did they come from?

How, when and why did you create them?

What's with that 'T13' crap they have on their clothes?

Perhaps in time, they could be revealed with no questions asked but surely, not anytime soon.

*Knock knock*

He was broken out of his musings. "Who is it?"

"It's me." The voice on the other side of the door said. It sounded like Iruka.

"Oh. What do you want?" Naruto asked simply. Not harshly, but not exactly welcome either. He reached for his goggles on his dresser and quickly put them on.

"Are you dressed? I want to come in."

"Sure. Enter."

The knob turned and Iruka let himself in but stayed on the entry mat. "Do you know what day it is?" He grinned.

The Uzumaki knew but he decided to pretend not to. "Friday?"

"Well…yeah. But something else. Guess."

"Laundry day. Right?"

Umino chuckled. "I know you know. C'mon. One more time."

"…Nope. I don't know."

Iruka replied by slowly bringing his hand to hitai ate while Naruto looked 'barely' interested. He finally touched it and Naruto finally adopted a look of 'realization.' "It's…"

"Yeah, it's over today!"

"Hell yeeesssss!" The boy fist pumped in the air. Iruka took out Naruto's forehead protector from one of his vest pockets and tossed it to him. The boy caught it neatly in his palm and gazed at his reflection in it. Iruka must have spent some time shining it to give to him.

"Arigato. Looks really shiny."

"Done it myself. Like it? I know some of the veterans like theirs lackluster so it doesn't reflect light at night.

"It's great. Besides, if anyone finds me at night if they're lucky enough, they'll wish they hadn't."

"There yah go. C'mon. Hokage-sama's waiting to give back your license card to you."

Umino waited a couple minutes for Naruto to put on his more 'ninja-like' clothing and hitai ate to look more presentable before they left the apartment through the door. Soon, they were walking through the busy streets and maneuvered around the people. They briefly conversed close to the end of the journey but it was mostly one sided, namely that of Iruka asking the blond questions, trying to figure out how things were from his end. He had realized that this was a new Naruto and whatnot from three months ago- beating people with batons and cutting off their heads and whatnot but he really thought he would be more pumped. As if he really had changed over night.

Come to think of it, he hadn't even wanted to speak with him during his suspension. Why would he do so today?

They announced their arrival at the door and were permitted to be let inside by the Sandaime. Said old man smiled nearly unnoticeably as Naruto approached his desk. Without any ado, he gave the boy his ninja license card and the boy was a bit baffled.

"That's it?! You just give it to me without any form of prior ceremony?!"

"Afraid so, Naruto-kun. Unless you would like for me to hold onto it a little while longer for safekeeping?"

"Hell no! I need this so I can practice blowing shit up!"

"Naruto! Language!" Iruka chastised.

The boy did a double take before he obliged. "So sorry. I meant 'heck no. I need this to practice blowing crap up.' You know, saying it like that takes away a lot of emphasis."

"I didn't mind all that much, so long as you don't speak more candidly than that." Hiruzen replied.

"So…Naruto. The D ranks have piled up again…mind helping Konoha out and your fellow genin a bit?"

The boy started laughing and Iruka joined in but Naruto stopped abruptly. "No."

"Ooh… you got shot down, Iruka." The Sandaime said. "And I don't blame him. Most of those missions are horrible."

Iruka chucked embarrassedly but Naruto fidgeted. "Well, if that's all, it's been three months since I've used a bunshin Daibakuha. The destroyed training ground four needs to stay that way. Later!"

The boy ran away out the door quickly, ignoring the Sandaime's calls to wait.

And really, who could blame him?

Throughout the next week, Naruto adopted his previous training regimen in training ground four as well as 'training' with the rest of Team 8, minus the whole crap about doing a shit-ton of D rank missions, keeping in mind his three million ryo worth of gold in three seals just under his armpit on his side. He really didn't need that pittance that earned and besides, he could do without all the memories that came with the odd jobs.

Nothing much happened until Kurenai had gone to the Hokage to request another C rank mission after mustering up the nerve to do so. The botched last one still provided vivid images of the massive fireball in the sky she had witnessed and the last thing she needed was another one.

It went normally, per say. They went to the Hokage's office, asked for a mission but instead of a D rank to promote 'safety and teamwork', they asked for a C ranked one instead.

"Yeah. What have you got there?"

"I've got a couple escort and protect missions. There's one to Suna, one to Taki, and one to Wave." Iruka told the red-eyed woman.

Naruto's eyes widened full open. 'Taki! Wave! Holy shit!'

His mind raced at millions of miles per hour as Kurenai hemmed and hawed in the background, trying to decide which one to take. From the sound of things, it sounded like she was leaning towards the escort to Takigakure.

'I could still turn her decision either way. What to do? I miss my family in Wave. And I miss Fu. I could visit either of the two based on the one we take. Decisions, decisions…'

"Hmm." Kurenai ruminated. "We'll take the one to-"

"Wave?" Naruto suggested. His face was as composed as the Sandaime's himself.

"Why Wave?"

"It's location looks good on the map." The boy answered. And in truth, he had always thought that.

"Well. We might as well do that one. I still can't make up my mind anyway, even though that sounds like a…unique reason for Wave." Kurenai eyed the Uzumaki who was relentless. Seeing no cracks, she ceased her red-eyed stare and looked over the mission details in the document she took from Umino.

"Alright." Sarutobi clapped his hands once in anticipation. "Tazuna-san, you may enter."

Naruto's breath hitched in his throat.

 **Ho-ly crap. This chapter was particularly…suckish. Yeah. That's right. Suckish. I'm not putting myself down, I'm only saying this could have gone a lot better but it wouldn't. It just wouldn't budge and the details…so many details were unnecessary and I'm getting impatient and Narburei, the torture clone needs more…screen time, so to speak.**

 **Narburei: Hear, Hear!**

 **Alright, that's enough. Anyway, by this time, I'll have started a 15k one shot called Omniscience. (Guess that's where most of my creativity went to this week). I merely want some feedback on it. It's completely original, not based of anything else (Like Naruto universe) and believe me when I say, it will make you** _ **think.**_ **If I don't see you there, I'll take it that you only read fics based on anime and you don't like to think.**

 **(Revised: It's in progress and I'm making good progress. Swing by and tell me what you think of it.)**

 **That's all folks.**

 **Sayonara.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Breaking Limits**

 **Is it vain of me to read my own stories and say 'Wow, I guess I write a damn good fanfic'? Or is it just a pat on the back which is healthy?**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

 **What? You thought I would do a disclaimer joke or try to make it more interesting? Fine. Here's a joke. – Capitalization is very important, especially with names. For example, one could write: My uncle's a professional with horses. - But one day, I had to help my uncle Jack off his horse. The potential error? - But one day, I had to help my uncle** _ **jack**_ **off his horse.**

 **Hope you enjoyed it. What? Another one?**

 **The word 'Tsunami' is not in my phone's predictive text dictionary. So if you ever get a text from me that says 'A** _ **Trumang**_ **is coming. Run!' It means get the** _ **fuck**_ **off the beach.**

 **[Jokes 'taken' from Sickipedia] Moving on! Also, if and when you review, help me out by telling me an option also. (A or B or C) trying to decide which way a story should go. I got three paths. Thanks!**

 **(Revised. Votes from readers and family completed. – Ultimatum: 10 Year olds Control the World.)**

 **23.**

The doorknob turned and a middle aged man entered through the now accessible doorway. Naruto suddenly found it difficult to breathe. His team were all closest to the door and he behind them, being closest to the Hokage's desk. Even more so, everyone was facing the door, including himself so the only person who would see his current discomfort would be the Hokage and Iruka behind him.

Abandoning his efforts to breathe, he decided to just hold his breath and get his heart rate under control. It was beating so quickly and loud in his ears, he was almost convinced that it was deafening the others as well. 'Tazuna? Is it really my adoptive grandfather? It could be someone else…after all, why would he be here of all places?' his mind accelerated beyond what could be deemed as normal processing speeds, lengthening his perception of time. While he had thought the Sandaime had announced the name ages ago, it was less than thirty seconds.

Naruto observed the man. Dressed in simple clothing that appeared weathered as well as sporting salt and pepper hair, heavier on the salt more than last time he had seen him. He had a small flask of moonshine liquor in his hand and the smell of it came off of him in pungent waves. Except for a few minor changes to his appearance, it wasn't arguable. This man, was in fact the Tazuna he knew and who helped raise him. Thinking of the man's humorous behavior back in those days made him smile to himself and his heart lightened up on its erratic beating.

'What if he creates a scene if he recognizes me? Then…then…everthing that happened when I was small will be revealed because he lacks subtlety. What if Saru-jiji is already suspicious of me?'

Tazuna's eyes started scanning the team in front of him. It first landed on Kurenai, then Hinata. Shino would be next in the order, given his proximity. Almost becoming alarmed but hiding it well, Naruto pulled the hood of his clothing over his head casually, the shadow it casted over his face hiding it well. Shino being scrutinized, Tazuna looked to the final member and stared at him the longest. This was now taken notice of by Kurenai.

"Tazuna-san?"

"The man did not answer. The boy in front of him who had nearly all of his feature hidden reminded him of a little boy who had lived with him, long ago. He had worn clothing similar to his when he lived there. In fact, this could very well be Naruto. After all, this was Konoha, no? This was where he lived.

He had searched a bit since coming, trying to find out where Naruto lived so he could visit him, to at the very least speak with him. He loved the boy like his own family and why shouldn't he? He was family, blood or not blood related. He was discouraged to find that most people just told him that he was dead, or tell him not to bother because he was nothing but trouble. In short, he had spent three days looking and about ready to leave and he still hadn't found him. He was ready from yesterday and had stalled from then 'till now, trying to find the boy before he left again. Yesterday, he insulted the team from yesterday, saying that the guy with one eye didn't look reliable and the genin were at each other's throats so much, he was afraid for his own, should he ever accepted their help. That was putting it nicely.

The man decided that his team wasn't ready for the mission either, based on the older man's observations of his students. Tazuna got one more day and he was recalled today to the Hokage's waiting room. If only he hadn't put 'urgent' on his mission dilemma.

He saw the team and he was wondering what he could say to refuse them. 'Kami knows that I am **not** going to insult a woman. Again, anyway. That's gotten me into too many problems. Apart from that, the boys look serious.' "Err, do you have anyone more experienced, don't want to kick the bucket on the highway." Tazuna quipped.

"I assure you, Tazuna-san, my team is well able to take on a simple 'C' rank mission." Kurenai answered. 'Besides, Naruto there took down a jounin with next to no help.' She added in her mind.

'That's the problem. This… is not just a 'C' rank mission.' "That's true, I suppose. So they are all well-seasoned then?"

Kurenai wasn't sure how to answer that. 'Veteran genin? Absolutely not. Shino? I'd give him a 'half'. Hinata? Certainly a no. Naruto? While I'd give him a 'half' as well, that whole Kimyō thing is a bit assuring that he is capable. Am…am I coming to 'reasonable terms' with him?' "No, but this _is_ a C ranked mission. They should be able to handle any bandits and should any low level ninja actually show up, like a chunin. _Based on pure chance,_ I might add." She leveled the older man a stare that made him sweat a little. She knew of the practice when clients sometimes applied for a C rank mission, just to save some extra ryo and hope that the jounin-sensei is strong enough to handle any 'unforeseen problems.' She continued. "My genin have proven themselves… able in the past." She figured this based on their tactics when they were training/sparring with her as well as the two males reasoning skills and Naruto's well-rounded off prowess. Not to mention what he did to training ground four. Multiple times in fat, if the explosions that were heard ever since was anything to go by.

Tazuna saw that there was no way out, not to mention that the Hokage and his ninja aide might get suspicious of him scrutinizing and refusing every genin team he got. But he would be damned if he didn't stall a bit longer. "Well, I suppose that's fine. I'll be doing some construction work and the mission entails that I might need some guarding while doing so from hooligans." He lied through his teeth as if he had practiced it. "They like to harass hard-working people. In order to give some time to pack for an extended stay, we'll leave at noon. Just under two hours from now."

"That's fine."

Tazuna nodded at the response. He slowly turned and left the room. As he was walking out of the tower, he tried to make out the face hidden by the hood. Why would he hide it? He saw that it was off when he entered in the background of his vision but he knew not why the boy would cover it. If only he had focused on him first, he thought.

Inside the office, Iruka asked the Uzumaki why he pulled up his hood. It perplexed him and the Hokage himself had taken note of the same action and the boy's obvious reaction when he heard the name.

'Breathe easy, Naruto. Focus on…Fu. Yeah! That'll work!' Naruto pulled it back down and showed that he was smiling. "I did it because I don't want people outside of the village to see my face. It would… err, keep me out of the bingo book, was what I thought. Like after what happened back in Kimyō."

"I see." Sarutobi answered. "But wouldn't it be best if you showed the client your face? It would promote more trust."

Naruto smiled wider. "I just might. Anyway, let's go pack."

As soon as he left, Naruto put the hood back on and created several clones. He quickly told them mentally to find Tazuna and they all sprinted off in random directions. As Naruto began scanning the streets for his grandfather, all the other existing clones, particularly the members of T13 were chattering excitedly about the man.

'I can't wait to meet him!' Narkaze hollered mentally. Almost immediately, Naruto sensed him suffer some physical pain. No doubt one of his other brothers had shut him up. Narishi and Narkira were prone to do this.

The boy continued searching and soon gave up looking from street level. He leapt up to a nearby building and started running along the supported frame edges of the roof. While riskier because of the increased chance of losing balance and falling, it was a lot easier on the roof and made less damage and even lesser noise. He ran while scanning the ground below, 'Focus' truly helping him by being completely balanced on it while he ran on the narrow ledge. He had used an hour and still no Tazuna.

"Wait a minute." Naruto stopped. "He would have gone to his dwelling space to pack. He must be in an inn or hotel. Speaking of which, I haven't packed yet."

He brought his hands together to form the cross handseal and silently created another shadow clone. "Go pack for me. You know what I'll need. Use the storage seal in the top dresser draw."

The clone nodded before he body flickered away in a swirl of leaves. Returning to his current task, he mentally informed his shadow clones that he had recently created to look for the man in all the cheap inns and hotels, counting on the fact that if his clothing and frugal lifestyle was anything to go by, he wouldn't stay anywhere expensive. He himself went for the nearest one, being only a hundred feet away from actually landing on the roof.

Once arriving, he strafed silently to the edge of the building overlooking the alleyway and let himself fall down. He landed in a perfect 'safety tap' on the ground, bending his knees a little less than 90' and supporting the rest of his falling weight on his hands between his angled knees. He got up and did a henge to look like what he believed could pass for a civilian and strode out. He then entered the inn and made his way to the front desk; upon reaching it, he called for some service.

An aged woman got up from a low stool and extended a welcome to the disguised boy. He slowly let her down before asking if she accommodated his grandfather, only not so literally.

"I'm looking for my grandfather, Tazuna of Wave country. He and I got separated when we entered the village."

"Hai, he's here. He came back in not too long ago."

'Score!' He could not believe his luck. He quickly informed his clones to disperse before he refocused back on the woman. "I know that it might be wrong to ask this but could you tell me where his room is?"

She told him the room detail and he thanked her, wishing her 'good day.' She responded with a hearty-looking smile and he left straightaway for the man's room.

 **With Tazuna**

The man hurriedly packed his things, practically throwing them into his small suitcase. The sooner he got this done the more time he had to look for Naruto one last time. Finally getting in his clothing and other hygienic tools and such, he tossed in his liquor that he had purchased. Finally, he slammed the suitcase shut but it wouldn't close.

He grunted and slammed it shut but it wouldn't lock on it's catch. Getting frustrated, he took out one of his bottles and then slammed it shut. This time, it stayed.

He tore off the cork with his teeth and was about to chug it down when he heard a knock at the door. Naturally, he wasn't expecting anyone so he called out, asking for a name.

"Who is it?"

"Your grandson."

'What? Inari's back at home. And I don't know anyone with a voice like that.' "What's your name?"

"Just open the door. Geez. To think that my family tried to look for me and now they don't wanna see me. Tch."

The man did a double take and ran to the door and pulled it open almost savagely. All he beheld was a brown haired youth in a Kimono who stepped past him into the room. The bridge builder started to panic but when the young man poofed into smoke, it cleared, revealing the boy with the hooded face from earlier.

"Wha…wha-what do you want?" Tazuna stuttered.

The boy pulled back the facial obstruction, revealing a whiskered visage coupled with spiky blond hair. The boy grinned as he took in the man's startled and yet realization-filled face. "Hey, Oji-chan."

"Naruto!"

The Uzumaki quickly shushed the man. "Don't say my name, here!"

The man was now confused. "Why not?"

"It's not that I'm ashamed or anything, but I'm still fairly hated by the village. They don't know our relation. They don't even know about me leaving to go to Wave." He scream-whispered, the tone warning the man to be discreet. "I had to cover my face in the office so you wouldn't recognize me and make some sort of outburst."

"But what-"

"We'll talk in Wave. Just don't make any kind of scene in front of my team when you're around me." Naruto started getting a sense of foreboding mid-speech although he had no idea why. He picked up an opened bottle of liquor on the bedside table and re-corked it. "And Kaa-chan told you to stop drinking!"

He pocketed the bottle and shunshinned in a poof of smoke. Tazuna only watched the smoke dissipate before he spoke.

"What was that all about?" He muttered to himself. Suddenly realizing what Naruto did, he rushed to the window and yelled.

"Gimme back my saki, damnit!"

Back in front of his apartment building, he tossed the bottle in the dumpster to the side and bounded up the steps. Only a half hour left now and his clone was no doubt still packing or just finishing up. He stepped inside his apartment, only to find a knapsack packed with his things on the couch and a storage seal next to it. He took it up and sealed the one in the other before tattooing himself with the storage seal on his upper arm, just below the shoulder.

He became puzzled, not recalling his clone's memories and continued going through the rooms. Entering the bathroom last, he saw the clone cleaning his baton and efficiently greasing its catches to ensure that it was released easier and more fluently in the future.

Upon seeing his creator, the clone nodded to him before closing the baton with a click and tossed it to him. Naruto caught it and placed it in its holster on his back (at the waist) and nodded back to his doppelganger. Said imitation dispersed and soon, Naruto was running back to the gates to be on time.

Along the way, he realized that he did not appear to have packed anything. If so, the gate guards would suspect that he was using storage seals. And while searching him for the seals and finding it, they would start inquiring if he had a permit for using and creating seals. Even worse, they might find his gravity seal and his gold seal and everything from there would be a huge mess, including how he got that when he was 'in the village the whole time'.

He stopped for a minute roll up his shirt sleeve to unseal his knapsack and put it on, unfurling the rolls. He began running again and made it to the gates ten minutes early. He leaned against the guardhouse near the gate while he began to puzzle why Tazuna needed guards while he worked.

Kurenai was conversing with the guards, probably having logged her team for departure already. All they need was for Tazuna to show up and sign his name so they could all leave.

"Hey, Naruto."

"Hmm?" He looked up in the direction of the voice to see one of the chunin guards beckon to him. He walked over, beginning to wonder if they suspected him of anything, namely if anyone matching his current description had walked into the village brazenly or if it was about the prank his clone had distracted them with. He mentally prepped himself to lie if needs be. "What is it?"

"There were some things we heard." Kotetsu stated.

'Alright. Just focus and don't stutter when answering.' "About what?"

"It's about you being outside of the village." Izumo added.

'Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.' He nodded for them to continue, maintaining his cool exterior.

"Is it true about you fighting Shita to the death with barely any help in Kimyō Town three months ago? Iruka and Ko won't stop talking about it in the barracks."

'That? Thank Kami.' "It's…true?"

"Why so hesitant?"

"Any and every bit of help is valuable." He answered Kotetsu.

"True, but the way they were talking is like they were getting in the way and you pulled the most weight. Even when you continued fighting when he turned so many acres into a horrible area to be in. Even your idea with getting the tags!"

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Hai! We could hear the explosion and see a part of it over the trees."

"Alright, enough of that." Kurenai butted in, making the two chunin roll their eyes.

"Guess someone's jealous since they skipped out on a mission too early." Izumo grinned, making the woman fume.

"I'm not jealous. My team and I could have handled the mission. Are you doubting my prowess and rank?"

"No." A cough sounding like the word 'coward' could be heard from the two men. It was responded to with an icy, red-eyed glare from Yuhi. In her mind she started to wonder if the views that the two chunin just shared were what others thought as well. Naruto, some kind of Hero who outlasted all peril while she, a coward who ran away as soon as difficulty increased?

She needed to save some face.

Tazuna ambled up to the team from seemingly nowhere. "Ah. I suppose we're all ready then?"

The two chunin fell back into their roles promptly. "So you're the client? Please sign your name for your departure." The man complied and soon, they were walking out of the village at a modest pace, one that the Bridge builder from Wave could pace himself well in. Kurenai walked in the lead just a step or two ahead of Tazuna, Naruto to the man's right, Hinata on his left and Shino at the back.

Said boy was seemingly and constantly muttering to himself. The rest of Team eight presumed that he was conversing with his insects and tried to strike one up with themselves, mainly that of which Hinata started by asking Tazuna about where his bridge would span between.

"Why, it'll be my best and most impressive work yet!" He replied with a grin. "I plan to link the coast of the harbor that's offshore directly to the mainland. It'll be like…like…a plaque or something, sayin' I made a huge accomplishment when this is all over. I've been an architect for a lot of building projects but nothing even half as impressive as the _blueprints_ for this!"

"That's good to know." She replied in her quiet way.

The jounin sensei of the team took note of how Hinata had finally rid herself of her speech quandary and now spoke without any stuttering. While she had noticed her improve in this area, mostly around one to two months ago, she knew not how the girl had achieved it.

"Say, Hinata-chan. I notice how you've completely stopped stuttering. Was it your parents who-"

"No Kurenai-sensei. Naruto-kun helped me."

"Oh, Naruto." "Wait! Naruto! Hold on… she interrupted me mid sentence? It's like she's a completely new girl!' "How come?"

Naruto kissed his teeth and grumbled something unintelligible but the woman tried to ignore it, focusing on her female student. "He's been getting me to do some confidence and assertive exercises."

She wisely avoided saying that he had taught her the **Mystical Palm Technique** ,among some other things, knowing that it might cause him trouble for doing so when he was on suspension. "He was very helpful."

"Is that so?"

"Oh yeah. That's so." Naruto said firmly. He did not need any drama with this woman, what with him going to Wave. He was finally going to see his family again. He was going to see his Kaa-chan, otouto, tou-san…nothing could ruin that moment. It's been too long.

"I presume Wave has no ninja alliance or trained ninjas for that matter?" Shino suddenly asked.

"No, no. We have no ninja. Although from time to time one sees them but they're only hired muscle, like you now." The man replied. He couldn't help but think of Gato and his plethora of bandits and ninja alike at his beck and call, wondering if he had made a bug mistake. His grandson was right here on the mission for Kami's sake! He was still a genin! He could get killed for trying to tackle this mess. And what was all the hullabaloo about him still being hated? Was it linked to how he was treated by the villagers when he was younger, forcing him go to Wave?

"That sounds reasonable." The boy said straightly before talking to the inside of his collar once more. He shrugged off the behavior as normal when he saw that his other protectors seemed to accept it. He refocused on walking and sometimes stole glances at his grandson, taking in his appearance.

'He's definitely grown. Look at his jaw. It's well on it's way to becoming perfectly squared.' No baby fat, or any fat to be seen for that matter. His limbs were all lean with extremely developed muscles, even now more than when he trained while he was still with them. He was fit for-'

"Look alive!" Kurenai yelled. Bandits suddenly started coming out and from behind trees, each with a homemade weapon of their own. Most seemed like simple gardening tools 'spiced up' to aid their fighting and melee styles and seeing the men (And single woman) Hinata, Shino and Naruto sprang to life but they were already surrounded. Tensing themselves for potential harm, they maintained their vigil in case this got out of control.

"Well look at that." A bandit licked his lips while alternate-leaning his weight on one leg, then the other. "We got two little boys playing ninja, an old man and two girls with some really exotic-looking eyes."

Naruto spat to one side. "Kami. You would think that bandits knew that being one was bad for their health. And yet, they continue in that line of work. Tch."

The air grew deathly silent as the highway robbers processed what Naruto said.

"Kill the blond idiot first!" The sole female bandit shouted.

They all charged at the group of travelers who stood their ground, sans Tazuna who cowered a bit in the middle of their presence. Hinata formed the unique handseal that activated her bloodline limit, Shino started releasing his kikaichu from his sleeves and Kurenai began weaving genjutsu to fool her opponents.

Naruto…took out his baton and proceeded to break some bones.

Shino fought in tandem with Kurenai in disabling the bandits with their primary abilities, before killing them. That deed was mostly done by Kurenai by cutting their throats when they were stricken with genjutsu-paralysis and Shino allowing his kikaichu to bite certain places to make the robbers bleed to death, namely jugular veins in the neck, axillary arteries in the arms and femoral arteries in the legs. One second, the bandits would be fine, another second, they felt something bite them in the vital spot, then the next one, their life-liquid poured out of their bodies in a gout.. A tourniquet to lessen bleeding from those places was near impossible.

The Uzumaki kicked away his incapacitated bandit and he inadvertently stumbled to Hinata, who finished him off with a few jabs to knock him out. He looked over his shoulder at his grandfather trying to hide behind him and sighed internally. He didn't blame him. The man had no fighting experience and he couldn't expect him to defend himself, and especially not when _he_ was being paid to. Besides, he was young and able bodied while Tazuna was approaching the mid sixties. With that in mind, he refocused his attention on the bandits streaming out of the trees yet still, running towards him with their weapons at the ready.

He noticed that Hinata would become overwhelmed quickly if she fought beside him, or anywhere on the battlefield for that matter. While he would bear the brunt of the bandits' wrath for saying what he did, no doubt quite a few would target her instead. Pardon him for being sexist and overly critic, but her level of the Jyuuken was not up to par, as well as a bit 'weak in the arms' for being a girl.

Kami help him if Fu found out he had ever had the gall to think that, even if it were just a one-time thing. Only once, he could say. Isolated incident he could insist, but he would get a haymaker to the jaw and she did _not_ hold back.

'Well, I don't need to hold back. Besides, my reserves are that of a Kage's right now.' He put the baton in his left hand and let his right hand find his weapon's pouch. Quickly taking out three shuriken gripped between his fingers, he threw them all at once, the knives each taking root in a bandit's neck and taking three lives at the same time.

They choked on their blood and fell on their backs before ultimately becoming still and lifeless. Seeing this, most of the thieves only became hesitant to confront him and charged instead at Hinata.

'Well. The number's three less, but they're only going towards her instead.' He retook his baton in his right hand and his tanto in the left, using a reverse grip. 'I could spam some clones but they could get in the way in this small space in the road, not to mention confuse my teammates if they can just kill a clone in their way to get to their opponent, hoping it's not me. Well, I doubt Kurenai would have any second thoughts, anyway.'

With a great sigh, he walked over to the girl's side and slowly blinked. "Tazuna-san. Please go and hide behind the oak that's behind you. This might get a little…unnerving."

"This is 'unnerving' already." The man replied in a half-yell before hauling ass to the tree where he peeked from behind it. He actually decided to take a bottle from his suitcase and drink some more liquor in an effort to calm his fraying nerves. 'I'll laugh about what I'm doing later.' He decided, popping off the cap.

The five of them reached the two genin at the same time and began trying to hack or bludgeon the two of them, albeit unsuccessfully. Sidestepping a dropping axe, Hinata thrust her two palms into her foe's gut, making him topple unto his side and gasping for air. She immediately had to duck a thick piece of dry bamboo and stepped closer to the inside of the man's guard and gentle-fisted him on his right arm gripping the bamboo. He dropped it and clutched his aching wrist. Fuming in anger, he tried to backhand the girl with his good arm but promptly received another jab to that wrist as well. His arms now useless, he tried kicking the girl but he himself got thrust-kicked in the groin, courtesy of Naruto.

He was all serious…brutally efficient and calculating. He stomped the fallen man in the stomach, ignoring his wheezing for air before eyeing the closest three bandits. Ducking what appeared to be a rusted sword, he swept the attacking man off his feet with his baton to the man's ankles. The bandit howled in pain as he fell uncontrollably to Naruto's level. The boy merely stabbed the man right in the chest, right between the fourth and fifth rib.

"Gah!" The man screamed through his teeth in his dying pains, fearing that he was now to die from his heart being pierced through and through. Quickly getting up, Naruto barely avoided a staff with nails embedded all over at the top of it by side stepping the man. Acting quickly, he counted as he squinted his eyes.

"One." He struck the bandit right in the crook behind the knee.

"Two." He then nailed the bandit in his lower back as the pained man fell to his knees.

"Three." The bandit was starting to lean back to fall to the ground when Naruto swung the baton for the third and final time, as hard as he could straight to the back of the man's head. For a brief second, the man's head exploded in pain before he was knocked out, passing into the black.

To Hinata looking on, all she saw Naruto did was swing his hand three times, almost at the place while the man suffered in three places. All in a blur.

"Grraahh!" A man of nearly impossible size yelled as he brought his large war hammer down unto Hinata's position. Reacting quickly, Naruto threw his baton at the man's face, interrupting him mid swing and he accidentally brought his weapon on his own foot, smashing his foot into a bloody and horrible paste.

The goliath of a man was about to scream in pain when Naruto ran at him and jumped when he had enough momentum, crashing right into the man's chest knees first. The man fell and toppled backwards right unto his back, his wind knocked out of him. But that as one thing left his chest, another thing entered.

As they landed, Naruto stabbed the man's chest, a bit closer to his neck and then rolled off to get rid of the extra momentum to the right, avoiding the man's head while leaving his tanto in the man's chest.

Grunting in pain, the man yanked it out but he only succeeded in making himself bleed freely. He tossed the knife away and got back unto his feet, blood staining his dirty grey vest and making it stick to his chest. He had no idea what the hell got punctured or hurt in his chest but he would be damned if he didn't avenge the brat who did the deed.

Naruto looked up at the man who towered above him like a bloodied giant. He looked to one side and saw his baton. Taking it up again, he stared at the man again, as if in a challenge…

Kurenai was busy tying up the lone female who was also the ringleader for the thugs. She was the last bandit still conscious, or alive, if one were to go that far. Naruto had just finished off the last male one by striking the man at his joints with his baton, as well as his sides while darting around him. In fact, Naruto doubted that it was he that did so because Hinata had jabbed the man a few times while he was preoccupied with him.

In fact, by the time everything was said and done, the woman still unnamed got killed by a genjutsu after trying to escape her bonds, the dead bandits were all heaped in a burning pile and some chunin from the Leaf chanced by on patrol and arrested the bandits still alive.

And Tazuna was tipsy from his liquor.

Naruto face-palmed as he saw the man trip over a rock in the road and nearly fall before correcting himself. "Why would you _drink_ while we were fighting?"

The man chuckled. "I dunno, brat. Let's just keep moving." He said in a slur.

Shino stopped walking and turned to his jounin teacher. "I think we should just make camp for the night because our progress is too slow with Tazuna-san's inebriation. We would be well rested, able to confront any trouble or unforeseen adversities tomorrow."

The rest of the team sighed in agreement.

 **At nine p.m.**

Naruto came back out of the woods with a double armful of dry branches and set them close by the fire, tending to it when the fuel burnt low. As he placed down the large bundle, he eyed Hinata as she stared at her hands.

"Something wrong?"

"It's…nothing."

"Nothing is _something_ when you boil down to basics." He replied as he sat next to her. "But I can tell you're thinking about what happened earlier today."

"…"

Naruto sighed as he took up a long stick and poked pieces of wood at the edges closer to the nucleus of the flames. "Uh huh. You're thinking about the bandits we killed."

"I was thinking about how I saw you _kill_ them. I only went for points I could target to knock unconscious while you… you just killed them as if they were a hindrance."

"I have that issue with myself a lot. Back in Kimyō Town when I killed Shita, I had premeditated on it. I had made up my mind to do so and it was my first kill. People normally make a big deal about killing and I have the same ideal. The truth is, I killed those people to ensure that they didn't hurt others."

"You knocked out some of them. Why not all of them? Surely, you were able." She enquired.

He took out his kunai from his pouch and held it out. Twirling it on his finger a few times, he spoke again. "You have kunai with you, don't you? What do you think they were made for?"

She did not answer.

With a shrug, he threw the knife up in the air and held his hand out flat. The girl only stared as it landed back in his palm by the tip, staking itself in his palm. If it had had more force behind it, it probably would have stabbed right through.

She gasped. "Your hand! Why did you…!"

He took it out and allowed her to take his hand while she used S **hosen** to heal it. "Kunai, while able to be utilized by the ring at the bottom to knock people out, their original function is to cut, pierce and to stab. Generally, it's made to be thrown, and with it's design, it meets its target point first."

"I understand but-"

"And yet you carry this weapon with you. Did you intend to use it for cutting vegetables or something? My point is that as a Kunoichi, you should prepare yourself for the eventuality that you'll kill sooner or later."

"I…know. I apologize for holding the deed against you, it's just that…it's like you became a whole different person once you started fighting. Like you became a killer."

"I only adopted that nature because if I allowed myself to be even half serious, I could lose my life, or make the mistake of letting you lose yours. If I had even kept my original nature at the surface, it could become tainted with the violence of my actions. That's why I may seem bipolar at times." The Uzumaki figured this was a decent enough argument to defend himself. His genin teammate finally finished healing his hand and looked thoughtful, trying to ruminate on what he said. Deciding to let her be, he left her side and went over to Shino and Kurenai.

"So…who's taking the first watch?"

"Clones and kikaichu. All night."

"All night?"

" _All night_."

 **Somewhere else**

"Well, that's the last day and still no bridge builder, Zabuza."

Gozu and Meizu stood on the tree branch while looking down on Zabuza and his apprentice. Zabuza continued poking his goose meat that turned over the fire spit. He decided that it was not yet ready and finally acknowledged the Demon Brothers' statement.

"I know."

Zabuza was as imposing sitting down as he was standing, sporting bandages that wrapped around the lower half of his face and neck like a scarf. He was currently shirtless but he wore baggy, pinstriped pants and arm warmers. His legendary blade, Kubikiribōchō was stabbed and stayed in the ground next to him. The whole length and size of it was larger than any one, or even two people put together.

The apprentice wore a fairly standard Kirigakure outfit that stopped at the knees. Over this, a green haori was worn with white trimmings which matched the white bun holder in their hair and allowed for two locks of hair to be loose and frame the face. Said face was hidden by a white intimidating Kirigakure hunter-nin mask and this look was completed with brown platoon sandals.

Gozu and Meizu were wearing little more than worn clothing and the only outstanding detail about them was that they each had large metal gauntlets with a large shuriken launcher with chain installed in it. One wore his on his left hand and the other, right.

They stood what they believed was a safe enough distance from the Demon of the Hidden Mist, just in case they had to flee from him. One did not simply get up and complain or remind the killer things he didn't like hearing.

Said man merely closed his eyes. "So what's next?"

"Maybe he's hiding out in Konoha. That's where we found out that he left to go to. Maybe he's hiring ninja." Meizu said seriously. He doubted that they didn't really have any ninja able to beat Zabuza, but what about his brother and himself? They didn't really have an extensive knowledge of techniques.

"I doubt it. Man's too poor." Zabuza growled. "Besides, he knew that Gato would want him dead. He's probably hiding."

"Can we infiltrate the village to kill him?" Gozu asked more to himself hopefully.

"Don't be a fuckin' idiot, Gozu. We're too well known. All the ninja there would just hurl hundreds of jutsu at us before we even made a hundred feet of the gate."

"I'm not thinking of me, sir. I'm thinking of Haku."

"Haku? Hmm." The man stared into the flames and turned his meat again. "What do you think, Haku?"

The apprentice appeared to have been experimenting with ice while listening. Without even turning their head, the person answered. "I don't have any paperwork or identification. So I can't go there under any guise." Mentally, they abhorred killing and was trying to find excuses to not go and murder a defenseless old family man.

Zabuza and the others accepted the excuse anyway without knowing it was one. "That's true. We've wasted three weeks waiting out here."

"Exactly!" Meizu exclaimed. "All the wildlife have gone so there's no meat to hunt. We're almost out of food. It'll run out in a day and furthermore, we can just wait in Wave if he ever comes back. His family's still there, no?"

Zabuza reached into the flames and grasped his meat. Taking it out again and ignoring the burning pain, he pulled down his bandages hiding his face, revealing his serrated teeth. He promptly tore into the meat like a savage shark. The others did not even bat an eyelash, having seen this before.

Swallowing chunk of meat, Zabuza turned to the brothers. "We leave at six a.m."

"Hai."

 **9:00 a.m.**

Tazuna was roused awake by someone shaking his shoulders. "Wha…"

"Ohayou, Tazuna-san."

"Naruto? Wha…what time is it?" He squinted at the blurry image of his grandson.

"Time to leave." The reply came.

The man's eyes regained focus and his view of the boy became clear. He crawled out of his sleeping bag and stood up, stretching. "Well, time to hit the road. But first and foremost, where's my breakfast?"

One half-hour breakfast later, they continued walking to Wave country and took the ferry to get across an expansive lake before Tazuna announced they were on the last leg to his home. Team 8 was only too glad to hear that. Especially Naruto.

With each step he took, he remembered how he ran with all his might to this country, fleeing the village's hate of him. With each step, nostalgia swept over him like a flood. The boy nearly teared up as he remembered when he first saw Kaiza, his adoptive father. The Uzumaki recalled every word that passed between them and he couldn't help but think of his childish error of talking to a complete stranger as if he had known all his life.

'Best mistake of my life.'

The ferry was almost his breaking point as he saw in his mind's eye how he got rowed over by the caring fisherman. Even his teammates noticed but they shook it off as anxiety for being on water instead of on land.

He even started walking a bit ahead of the group and Kurenai had to tell him to slow down.

"Naruto, walk with the group around Tazuna. Besides, you don't know where the client lives." She chastised.

'Oh, but I do,' "Hai, Kurenai sensei." He complied with her order and slowed down, letting Tazuna lead the way to his home.

As they neared the seaside village where he had his residence, Naruto realized that he needed to be go incognito, just in case what nearly happened early with recognition. He was fairly known, what with being the adoptive son of the Hero of Wave. With his spiky blond hair and whisker-marks, he was sure that he could be recognized anywhere.

He lagged behind all the way to the back before donning his hood, the covering shadowing his face. He did so to avoid questions of his teammates if they saw this. By the time they arrived to the house, he could just take it off, no questions asked.

'Oh no.'

That was another difficulty in itself. What if they made an outburst in recognition? Complications, complications. He was now starting to hate the word. Even if that worked out with them being discreet, how was he supposed to even hold a conversation with them normally, under supervision of his sensei, or even in front of his teammates. Sure, maybe he could count on them to keep the secret but how long before someone slips up?

He might just have to come clean.

'But not before. Only if and when I get caught _and_ I can't get out of making a truthful explanation.'

"How long before we arrive?" Hinata queried.

"Almost there." Tazuna answered. "As soon we clear these trees, we'll be right at the entrance of the town. When the bridge is built, maybe the next time you come to escort me, you won't need to travel so far out of the way."

"I don't mind the distance. Truthfully, traveling like this is very monotonous."

The pungent smell that accompanied a seaside fishing village as they neared the end of the tree line. His anxiety finally reached its peak just as they left the shady forest and the newfound sunlight momentarily blinded him. His pupils quickly constricted (Ties in with 'Focus' ability) and he took in what he saw.

And ever so slowly, his smile became a dejected, disappointed, slack-mouth frown.

Garbage refuse littered the streets and nearby, he could see dogs fighting over what looked like a used baby diaper. They held it in their mouths like a game of tug-o-war until finally, it tore and brown stool fell out, promptly eaten by said dogs. Hinata barely held her lunch at bay when she saw this but Naruto was far more concerned with the other…affairs.

The houses were in a state of extreme dilapidation, rotting support beams barely holding up rusty zinc and walls that had cardboard covering holes in an effort to keep out the cold. Most people were dressed in worn clothing that was patched extensively and the children were half naked at most. As they walked through what looked like a market, the area did not deserve such a title as all the stalls content's put together couldn't half fill a grocer's shop. Not to mention the food was far from being in top condition.

He recognized many faces from memory, all who he had interacted with. In his memory, they had smiling faces but now, they were devoid of happiness. He would go as far as to say that while alive, they were all dead inside. He began to fervently hope that his family was okay.

The rest of Team eight was in a similar emotional state as him but not to the same extent, seeing as they did not have his ties to the place. They looked a bit disheveled but tried to keep an independent position and stance on the matter. Especially Kurenai. No doubt she had seen situations like this before.

The denizens of Wave all stared at the newcomers in silence, unnerving the Leaf ninja. It was discomforting and the feeling of paranoia plagued them, even though they knew why. It just did not alleviate the feeling.

Tazuna sensed it too and decided to make more haste to his home. The others with him quickly fell into step and were soon coming up the man's house.

While one could argue that the home was significantly better than others they had seen coming this far in Wave country, the building held the same kind of dilapidation feel to it. Only somehow, all the repairs were done to it and made the house look quaint, like pale whitewashed lattice and a few windows in places that didn't seem feasible.

Naruto remembered whitewashing the lattice with the special lime solution and couldn't help but wondered if it was _the last time_ it was ever done. This was years ago and as far as he was concerned, Kaiza or even Tsunami would have done it both enjoying keeping their home presentable.

They walked up to the front door while Tazuna knocked on the door before entering. "Musume! I'm home!" He turned to Team eight while in the doorway. "Let me go talk to them first. I don't want you giving my family a heart attack, you know."

"Of course." Kurenai agreed.

Two minutes later, they were invited inside by the older man who asked them to remove their sandals at the door. They obliged and did so, placing their footwear inside what looked like a bottle crate set up for the action and they entered. Shino, for the first time noticed his teammate wearing his hood up. He asked why he did so.

"I don't ask why you wear dark shades all the time, Shino. Just let it be."

The boy did so and turned his attention elsewhere but Kurenai gazed at the Uzumaki a while longer, wondering what he was up to. A pretty raven haired woman came out of what seemed to be the kitchen and smiled. Naruto's core nearly melted when he saw her. It had truly been a long time.

"Kon-nichi wa. It's a pleasure having my father's protection in our humble home."

"The pleasure is ours." Hinata replied, smiling."

"My name is Tsunami. May I have yours?"

"My name is Hinata."

"Kurenai Yuhi."

"I am Shino of the Aburame."

"Naruto." The Uzumaki said last, hoping that she didn't have an episode over the name.

The woman's lips twitched ever so slightly but only Naruto noticed, having being the one looking out for her reactions. Needless to say, he was pleased. Tazuna must've spoken to her while they were waiting outside. 'I wonder if Inari-otouto's in on this.'

"I suppose I'll prepare some more food for supper to accommodate more people."

"Oh, I'll help, kaa…- Tsunami-san." Naruto spoke up, correcting himself hastily. "I might as well assist, keeping myself occupied."

"That's fine." She turned and started walking back to the kitchen and Naruto followed her. Watching them leave for the kitchen, Shino pushed his shades back closer to his eyes.

'How…odd.'

There was a sudden clap of thunder that seemed to rumble through the house. It happened twice more in the space of three minutes and rain started to fall heavily in a constant loud drone. Kurenai heaved a sigh when she heard the rain.

'Ugh. I was hoping to sleep outside again.'

Naruto immediately headed for the sink and stated washing the dishes wordlessly. Nearby, Tsunami started cutting scallions and leeks on a wood cutting board.

 _Cut…cut…cut…swipe._

 _Wash…wash…rinse…dry._

They continued for five minutes before Naruto dried the last dish and Tsunami chopped the last leek. They each turned to go to their next task and bumped into each other. They stood like that for a minute before the boy dashed into the woman's arms, starting to cry.

"K…Kaa-chan."

"Shhh. I'm here, Naruto-chan."

The boy sobbed as tears ran freely from his eyes and down his whiskered cheeks. "You still call me that?"

The woman started crying as well. "You…you'll always be Naruto-chan to me."

They were like that for another minute before they each released the other from the embrace. "I missed you all so much. It's just that I had to forget…remember…ugh! It's all so…ugh!"

She knelt on one knee to his level and clasped his face in her hands and wiped away his tears with her thumbs. "You're here. That's what is important. I've prayed, hoping that one day I would get to see you again. And you're here."

"Yeah. I'm here dattebayo!"

She slightly smirked. "You still have that verbal tick, I see."

He chuckled. "Mmm hmm."

Hinata strolled into the kitchen a few minutes later, not knowing of the mother/son moment she just missed. All she saw was their hostess cutting up some fish while Naruto was kneading some flour into dumplings in a bowl and requested if she could get a cup of water.

"Oh! Hai. The cup's over there, by the sink. You can help yourself to the barrel of water in the corner." She pointed out the things. "I'd do it for you but as you can see…" She trailed off and held up her scale-covered hands for the girl to see.

"That's fine. Arigatou." She retrieved some water from the barrel with a pitcher sitting close by and poured it into the cup she took. Soon, she had walked off again to the living room to the rest of her team. Naruto watched her leave before he turned again to his adoptive mother.

"Anyway, I was saying, he just get's up and says to the whole class 'First one to get me the goggles gets a kiss on the cheek.' And suddenly, all of the fan girls get up and bomb-rush me to rip my goggles off. I'm telling you, I had to climb a really tall tree and stay there. Naturally, they couldn't climb that well and they couldn't climb trees with chakra yet. They didn't know how."

"Is that so?" She laughed. "My big, strong Naruto hiding out from girls in a tree."

"Err…It sounds kinda humiliating when you put it that way. But now, I don't even have to do anything like that to hide 'cause I think I'm strong enough to fight them off."

"That thing on your forehead helped you?" She scaled another of the fishes carefully.

"Oh yeah! It helped me a whole lot! Wanna see it? I guess it evolved since I went back to the Leaf."

"Okay! Show me."

He walked over to her and listened if anyone was close by 'spying'. After making sure that all background noise was normal and no one was stirring in other rooms, he lifted his headband and showed her the symbol underneath on his forehead. She squinted at it and read the kanji labeling the new arrows.

"…Focus?...Reflex?"

"Umm…Focus deals with mental acuity. It's like when I focus on something, I don't lose track of it or lose my bearings. It also helps me in some physical abilities like my eyes adapt to changes in lighting really quick and I can remain meditate really easy now."

"You? Meditate? What else can it do?" She asked excitedly.

"I cannot miss unless I try to. I mean, if you gave me a pin, I could probably throw it and pin a fly to the wall by it's wings."

"Really?!" She asked unbelievingly. "That's really impressive! What about reflex?"

"That one's kinda complicated." Naruto admitted. "It feels like a one-type thing but the ability is really useful. How do I explain this?" He scratched his head. "It's like when my body and mind realizes that I can't dodge something, it does it for me. Often times, I myself didn't know I was going to get hurt."

"Wha? I can… comprehend that, I guess. But how is it that your body and mind know, but not you?"

"Beats me." Naruto admitted. He pulled down his headband again, lest someone chanced by and see it.

"I think my favorite is still understanding. It's like being a genius, understanding things far easier than other people and things. It's what I would want. Maybe then I can help Inari with his homework from time to time."

"How's otouto?"

The woman hesitated. "Inari's fine." She replied.

Naruto's narrowed a little when he sensed it. "Oh. He's with tou-san, huh? I think they would be fine, sheltering somewhere from the rain. Hope they're not at sea."

The woman said nothing and went back to cutting the fish. Her back was turned and Naruto did not notice the tears running anew down her face. However, he did realize that the previous joyful mood was replaced with a sad one. He knew not why.

'What did I say? What's going on?' He went back to kneading the flour.

 **XxX**

"Dinner was lovely, Tsunami-san. Arigatou." Hinata praised.

"That's pleasing to hear. I did have some help from Naruto. The boy's as good as a professional chef."

Naruto blushed a little. "I merely follow recipes I've developed after reading cookbooks."

Kurenai's brows ever-so-slightly furrowed. 'Naruto helped cook this? Hmm. I must say, if this was poisoned, it's the best I've had the fortune to sample.' "Arigatou for the meal. However, who's to sit by the set place right there?"

"That's for Inari- he's my son. He'll be home soon."

Naruto frowned. 'What about tou-san's place. I don't remember her ever failing to set a place for him, whether he came home early or not. And I _don't_ forget. Something's not right.' He quickly got up and began taking up everyone's empty plates to wash them but Tsunami insisted that he take a rest. Hinata volunteered in his steed so he left the room to go upstairs, leaving the others to converse among themselves.

He stepped inside the bedroom he had once shared with Inari and shook of his recollections of the room, intent on figuring out what was wrong. He went to the window and looked outside. The rain had stopped falling an hour ago and the only water that fell was that of the dripping of it off the leaves of trees.

'Everything's fine. Everything's fine.'

But no matter how much he told himself that, the worse he felt.

He heard what sounded like muffled yelling coming from downstairs and he quickly placed his ear on the floor and listened. 'Hmm. Sounds like Inari's came home. Heh. His voice hasn't changed any.'

" _Inari, why don't you go upstairs. Rest yourself a bit since you're not hungry."_

Naruto figured that the voice was Tazuna's. "He must be trying to surprise him by letting him meet me alone. That's oji-san for you." He mumbled. He soon heard what was running up the stairs and he stood up again, pulling the hood over his face and the mask, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

The little boy opened the door and just as he was about to dash in, he saw the stranger standing in the middle of the room. His eyes grew impossibly wide as he took in the sight of the feral nature of the mask and the dead silence of his counterpart. He was about to scream but suddenly, the masked individual was in front of him covering his mouth.

He chuckled before using his free hand and pulled down his facial obstructions and revealed his face. "Long time no see, otouto."

The little boy squirmed off the hand over his mouth and stared at the Uzumaki. "What? Nii-san?"

"Uh huh." Naruto smirked.

Inari punched him in the stomach as hard as he could but he really didn't hurt Naruto. He wasn't going to tell him that though.

"Why'd you try to scare me like that, huh?! I thought I was gonna die!" He exclaimed.

"Calm down, yah big crybaby. Just gimme a hug."

The brothers hugged briefly before releasing each other. Naruto sighed. "Uh huh. So, uh, tou-san brought you home huh?"

"T-…t-tou-san?"

"Yeah. Dad. He brought you home right? I bet that you got lost or something and he had to rescue you again or something."

"Naruto-nii." The boy looked like he was going to cry, setting off alarm bells in his head.

"What?! What is it?!" And yet somehow, despite his asking, he really didn't want to find out.

"Tou-san's dead."

 **Hold on, let me just cut it right there.**

 **I think I handled the drama okay for this chapter. I think it's fine. Yep. Better than the rushed last chapter but you can't score a hundred percent all the time.**

 **Anyway, I've always been about typing something that while it follows the Naruto timeline, I plotted extremely different changes. As is the case that they missed an encounter with Zabuza, Haku and the Demon Brothers. They'll show up, don't worry- there will be fights. I got something planned for next chapter but unfortunately, no chapters for this story will be posted until January. Besides, despite me being a procrastinator, you've always gotten your chapters in my schedule. I'm reliable.**

 **I'll be using the break to correct all my grammatical and spelling errors for the whole story so yeah, see you next year. As well as gorging myself on unhealthy food doing so.**

 **Tis the season. Whatever you celebrate, Hanukah, Christmas (insert your holiday here,) Enjoy it to the fullest but make sure you spend it with family. Not on social networks.**

 **Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year when it comes.**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	24. Chapter 24

**Breaking Limits [Patch # 1.0.3.]**

 **New features include: A new version of Scene Breaks, new signature (Latin) and finally hitting three hundred followers. [Monkiepawn was number 300. Congratulations!]**

 **Hello FF readers. I'm back and fatter than ever!**

 **(Don't you mean** _ **better**_ **than ever?)**

 **No. I mean** _ **fatter.**_

 ***Flashback***

 **MRAY steps unto scale to weigh himself.**

" **Holy shit! Is that my phone number?!"**

 ***Flashback end***

 **=X=X=**

 **But seriously folks, I'm only a half-pound heavier from the Holidays. I'll burn that off in no time. I hope that you aren't gaining weight sitting there and reading this. When you're done, go do some running! (Unless you're reading in the middle of the night, do some pushups instead.)**

 **Please note: I started** _ **yet another**_ **story, (Alvin and the Chipmunks, btw. A pleasant change of pace besides writing about kids killing one another with knives and fire techniques) so the update may not always come every two weeks. I'll try, but you know that God's name isn't MRAY 4TW. Should you ever get bored, check out my other stories in the meantime. (Self-advertising: Please check out my newfound series of one-shots under the name 'Ultimatum.' The latest one to come out [The one about 10 year olds] was in response to your votes, to whoever who did, anyway.)**

 **Disclaimer: For the love of… I don't own Naruto! LEAVE ME ALONE YOU GODDAMN BLOODSUCKING, PARASITIC LAWERS! GO STICK YOUR HEAD IN A GODDAMN PIG! THAT'S WHERE YOU BELONG, YOU SHITS!**

 **(Copy and pasted) Disclaimer: I found out that writing the disclaimer the way I do (I don't own Naruto) is like defending yourself from a bullet with a toothpick. Next to no chance of winning, but a chance none the less for us humble F-Fiction writers.**

 **I don't own Naruto. All of the rights to Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto, Hayato Date, Shueisha, Studio Pierrot, TV Tokyo and Viz media.**

 **Whew! Now I'm protected by Kevlar all over, not to mention the gun only fires blanks now.**

 **24.**

Naruto blinked stupidly for a second before he chuckled a little. The absurdity of that reality was just too much. It might seem a little convenient, seeing that the man hadn't arrived yet, but despite that, he had to admit the 'truth'. He got tricked.

"That…oh, you got me. I swear to Kami, you got me!" Naruto started giggling. "You're a really good actor! 'Tou san's dead'! Woo!" He playfully punched his adoptive brother's shoulder but although Inari felt a severe pain from it, his heart…his _emotional_ one hurt even worse.

Their father got murdered and this blond-haired idiot of a brother was laughing; a horrible sounding mocking laughter, exclaiming that it was funny?! A **joke**?!

He didn't know what to say. He was torn between crying for his father, crying for his shoulder, decking Naruto in the face or all of them at the same time. He went for the easiest path.

He fled.

He ran away through the door, crying for his father, away from his brother. Away from the laughter that sounded so much like the men that cut off his tou-san's arms, exsanguinating him.

Seeing his otouto's tears as he ran from him, Naruto's mirth ended. He started to ponder if he was serious or not, which branched out into if he believed him or not, which led to the case of him whether he was in denial when the facts, hints and clues were practically slapping him in the face.

Was Kaiza still alive?

He was suddenly afraid. He was scared to find out if the man really wasn't around anymore. While one could argue with him over who was his favorite parent, it all came back to the fact that the fisherman had been the one to give him a home (wasn't really his), saved his life, things like that. It wasn't Inari, It wasn't Tazuna, it wasn't Tsunami who he met out by the other shore, concerned for him. It was his _father_.

He stared at the ground and clenched his fists. He had to be alive. _He had to._

He walked in a determined state out of the room, down the stairs and headed straight for the miniature crate where the footwear were stowed. He fished out his pair of sandals and drew them on, ignoring whatever stares that rested upon him from the kitchen.

He stepped outside into the chilly weather that lingered from the rainfall that occurred earlier and inhaled deeply. The air was crisp, reminding him of the early morning version of it on the grassland where he had stayed with his brothers not too long ago.

As he took in air, he clenched and unclenched his fists and ever so slowly, his neutral face fell into a deep frown.

He would wait. He would wait for Kaiza; his father to return home. _All night if he had to._

 **With Gato**

He went behind the counter and took out his 'deepest' saucer (his personal favorite) and set it on the special mat on the counter-top. The exquisite marble top, carved with the most artistic yet firm hand that hewed it out of cave, high up in the mountains that, while numerous in amount, were rare in having the special marble.

The board with the spray finish that bordered the counter-top that the most archaic designs that was done in the slowest and most careful hand; no doubt conscious of the fact that a single mistake would require the whole thing to be scrapped. The details in the borders were marvelous. The artist must have had spectacular eyesight, and had access to the smallest and most professional carving tools ever made. The borders _alone_ could buy all the dwelling places in Wave, and have plenty enough change to repeat the action once over.

This… **counter** __was worth it's weight in gold… and yet… the owner was making a disgusted face as he spat out his mouthful of Vintage wine.

He preferred the stuff over the horrid rice alcohol everyone else drank and it was hard to get because of its lack of popularity…or as he preferred, it's yet to be known exclusivity.

"Thirty years old?! That was-" He spat his mouthful to one side, before throwing away the bottle against the far wall, shattering the bottle to pieces as a deluge of the blood red drink spilled from it's broken confines and splattered the wall, akin to blood. "Utter shit, that's what it was! A bad fucking year!"

Having vented his small 'fury' incident, he turned full on towards one of the guards at the door. Said guard snapped to attention nervously before calling outside the door for someone to come with a mop to come clean up the mess.

Upon seeing this, Gato relaxed. From when he was young, he had derived almost sadistic pleasure from being in control over something…or someone.

He was stocky in physical nature and extremely short from an extremely tender age, even right to the point of being called a pituitary dwarf. As one could imagine, one of this type of physical build would have a hard time being in control of something, if anything at any stage in time. This had cultivated the need to have superiority where it actually counted, not in something as petty as height. Although he did wish from time to time that he had to look up to everyone, sometimes even when they were seated and he standing.

He had grown tired of it from school days, and had stolen what money he could the second he left school, and committed murders when beneficial. Of course no one had ever suspected him, given how he looked. Was it possible for a six foot tall man to get his throat slashed by someone who was practically a midget?

Although if the so-called midget approached the seated victim from behind, sure. That was indeed, exactly what happened.

And no one had the brains to figure out that frighteningly simple logic.

A man gets his throat cut, gets robbed of his week's wages and that was how it all started.

Kill.

Steal.

Eat half the money. Save half the money.

Invest the money in good business ventures.

Strike rich, repeat the process once.

Strike poor, repeat the process twice.

He had near mythical business sense, knowing what avenue would turn up a guaranteed massive profit. Even on the few times he lost money, he didn't care. It wasn't his money to lose in the first place. He had almost everything to gain, and nearly nothing to lose. And given his thirst for control, he was formidable in all but physically.

Soon, he came to Wave country and promptly decided to take control over it, like a pseudo-dictator of some sort. He nearly had full control, until that upstart fisherman decided that he wanted to stick his nose in things that he shouldn't.

Control started to slip and with it, the equivalence of a drug addict losing his high over time. Sooner or later, he would want- no, _need_ it back.

Gato would rather have it sooner, so in less than thirty six hours, Kaiza was publicly killed and the people were dared to say anything that he didn't want to hear. They didn't, he was back in control and everything was 'normal', in every twisted sense of the word.

And that was the end of that.

That was almost a year ago. But it was six months ago when everything _really_ got terrible for Wave, not that he would admit it.

Like any other drug user could relate to, prolonged use of their stimulants or depressants will cause them to get 'weaker'. But in actuality, the body and psyche was growing tolerant of said interloper of the body's complicated inner workings.

He got too used to being in control. And like any junkie would do, he increased the dosage. To others being controlled, he was flexing his muscles and clenching his stubby fingers around their necks like a vise in an effort to snuff them out of existence.

He imposed more taxes, although he could have very well do without their pittance. He killed people, although he needed not their meaningless lives; he kidnapped their women and sold them into prostitution and men into slavery, although there was much better 'stock' in other places to choose from. Finally, he committed arson; he certainly didn't have to do that, but it was entertaining to have them watch their home burn to the ground in a pile of smoldering ashes, knowing that their own family ashes were in it, mixed along with the ashes of their cheaply made houses.

He didn't consider himself evil. Only powerful.

After all, predators lived to prey on the weak, and he was the predator. They were merely diseased meat that needed culling.

Now, they wanted to build a bridge. _To save themselves?!_

He decided to humor them.

'Build your pitiful bridge, eh?' He chuckled to himself as he stooped and pulled out a bottle dating back half-a-century from its place in the low cupboard. "They think I don't see the little eyesore? That I don't realize how they are making it? When? With what?" He muttered to himself while he poured himself a healthy shot of the liquid. He then placed the bottle back on the counter and drank the wine from his dish.

The alcohol ran down his throat to his stomach, warming everything that it touched while leaving a tangy and slightly tongue-tying taste in his mouth. 'Yeah. That's the stuff.' He gulped down more in an attempt to retain that wonderful feeling the inebriating drink offered and that it did. That it did.

He paused momentarily. It wouldn't do to get completely drunk. He had hired thieves and thugs for his own private security and it serve him well to retain cognitive skills and motor functions. He was a control manic after all. He cleared his throat to ready himself for a yell.

"Zabuza!"

Some water swirled into being in the room in front of his couch. A brief second following the event, four people were seated in it or standing close by it and staring at their employer.

"What is it?" Momochi growled.

"Have you killed the bridge builder?" Gato asked, the tone being laced with a hint that he was impatient.

"No. He's hiding in Konoha."

Gato mumbled to himself and laughed soon-after, a truly raucous sound. "How sure are you?"

The four ninja frowned like a raincloud, trying to reason out the implications of what their boss just said. "Very." The man with the serrated teeth replied.

Gato decided that he _should_ just pour himself another drink; only slightly smaller. He had discovered long ago that he gained confidence and loosened up with a few drinks in him and by drinking another dose of the confidence-enhancer, he could talk with the four killers with no fear. Besides, by pouring himself some more wine showed that he was participating half-heartedly in the discussion. An act of nonchalance. This showed the ninja that he was _not_ scared of them, not even taking them seriously.

While pouring the red liquid slowly to prevent spillage, he spoke again. "Explain that Konoha bit." He said in a demand. Inwardly, he was doing cartwheels at the thought of having Zabuza, The Zabuza, at his beck and call like a dog. 'Some people will do anything for money. He, however, realized that he was the same. The thought that something that wasn't even a being -just a thing- could control him made him feel irritated.

"We tracked him to the Leaf and waited to ambush him on his route when he would be coming back to Wave but he never showed up. We ran out of food waiting so we came back. We had decided to come back to Wave to wait on him to come back and take his head if he even so much as shown us his face." Gozu piped up.

"Well, in any case, you either missed his passing, or he walked in your footsteps," Gato declared sourly. "Because three of my people came and told me that he's in the village. He came home only this afternoon."

The four ninja said nothing to defy.

"What do you propose to do about it?" The short man demanded.

"Did he bring ninja with him? Guards?" Zabuza queried while gripping the handle of Kubikiribōchō tighter and tighter as his anger spiked. He silently cursed himself for taking the advice of the Demon brothers; were it not for their petty grumblings, the job would have been over and he already paid. He wasn't getting paid by the hour, only for the completed service. Not only that, but this damned midget who he was supposed to answer to was rapidly moving up his 'list' of people he wanted to kill in the worst way.

"Hai, of course. A woman and three kids. Shouldn't be too much for you, I trust?"

"None."

The shipping magnate took a sip of his blood-red drink. "Good."

 **=X=X=**

He was sure that it was now midnight. He had been standing for six hours outside the door, waiting for his father to return home. With each second that passed, the larger the emotional rock in his stomach grew and he feared that the truth…was what it were.

The rain started drizzling anew, and he pulled the hood of his clothing over his head, the waterproofed head-cover keeping his head dry and water from falling into his eyes and obscuring his vision.

The large pock-marked moon in its home in the sky lent it's light to the land, abandoned by the sun's light for a twelve hour cycle. The light did wonders for his morale as he continued his vigil, his supernatural stamina increasing his long-suffering abilities to remain standing still, long after when others would have already given up and shifted.

The silence enveloped him, and threatened to numb his senses from complacency. His mind started to wander but he quickly retook control of everything that was his. He legs used to stand, his will to stand, and his mental capacity that nearly began to dwell on thoughts of what others in his life were doing on a day to day basis. Not now obviously; if they were smart, they would be sleeping now.

Then why wasn't he?

He knew the truth but all that was him…all that was Naruto was to never give up so by admitting even the slightest testament to something else was giving up on that ideal. He knew that Kaiza was dead…all the truths were there. The way his mother carried on, the way his grandfather carried on, the way his brother carried on…

And the fact that the man hadn't come home yet.

Kaiza had declared himself to be something of a guard to his household and swore to the family that of he was out past midnight instead of with them, he'd cut off his own legs so he would stay put at home. The man was all about family, and Naruto was sure he had gotten some of that sense himself, no doubt from close association.

'Tou-san's dead.'

His reasoning, practical side threatened to take over as his 'never give up' side clutched at imaginative straws in an endeavor to keep himself from collapsing into bereavement. It made up stories, plausible explanations and especially tall-tales that could determine why the man was taking longer than he should to reach his home. The two sides waged a war that threatened to tear him apart-

"Naruto-kun?"

He was startled nearly out of his wits, but on the outside, he didn't so much as twitch a single hair. He had come to rely on 'Reflex' so much to help him that a benevolent person with no ill-intentions could come up to him from behind and scare him unintentionally. He needed to work on that.

"Hey Hinata-chan." He replied, without even turning to face her.

They stood in the silence, the girl just behind the boy for ten minutes more before she broke it again.

"Why are you standing out here? Don't you want to sleep?"

"Of course I want to go to bed. But I can't."

"Why not?" She replied in question, genuinely curious.

"I'm waiting for someone to come home."

The girl scanned her memories briefly. They told her that everyone was inside; Kurenai, Shino, Tazuna, Tsunami, Inari. All were in their beds, more or less asleep. The only ones awake were they, and they were currently outside in the drizzling rain. Well, he was in the rain. _She_ was standing in the doorway, under the slight awning that kept her sheltered from the weather.

"Everyone's here."

" _I'm waiting for someone to come home._ " He repeated in a strange, new tone. It heavily implied that he might have been tired…or tired of something. The Hyuuga started to hope that she wasn't the issue doing so.

"Who else could be out there?" She mumbled to herself. Naruto heard her and answered regardless.

"Kaiza. The fisherman."

Now the girl was well and truly confused. 'Naruto wasn't around the table when Tsunami-san told us about her husband. Even so, she said that he died. Naruto-kun was upstairs at the time, so I suppose that he overheard the first bit through the floor. But somehow, he missed hearing the second part when she mentioned that he was killed.'

"Anyway," Naruto continued. "I'm sure he'll soon come home." He spoke in a slightly broken manner, as if he had difficulty believing it himself, rather than to tell her of a fact.

"But…Tsunami-san says that he…" The lavender eyed girl searched for the right word. "Passed on. So you needn't wait for him to come."

So. His mother said that, huh?

She, indirectly through Hinata, just told him that Kaiza was dead. There was no use fighting the fact anymore. His father was dead. He'd promised to come visit them, but it was now too late; the man was gone and all he had of him now were his memories of him.

Thunder crashed, lightening struck, and a new round of rain fell on the land heavily, the large drops cold and thick with that of grieving. The sky cried with him as the clouds covered the moon, the atmosphere all black as if prepared for mourning.

He started walking away into the inky-blackness that was the night. The action took the girl by surprise and she called out for hime to return.

He did not respond, nor did he even give so much as a backwards glance.

His dark clothing camouflaged him excellently in the pitch black now. Every time lightning lit up the sky and the landscape, it momentarily showed him farther and farther away as if he were nothing more than a roving ghost.

The Hyuuga was still standing in the doorway as she watched him leave. Absentmindedly, she activated her byakugan to still keep track of him. All she could see was the chakra signature of his grow smaller with distance.

What was she to do?

She hurriedly retreated back inside, pulled on a raincoat she presumed was Tsunami's, pulled on her sandals and went back outside. She took a moment to fully commit to her decision before she began speed-walking through the deepening mud in the direction she had seen him go off in.

 **=X=X=**

Without the presence of mind necessary, he channeled chakra to his feet without realizing it and walked on top of the mud. He knew not where to go, knew not what to, and knew not why. He was simply on autopilot.

And yet he was aware of it.

He soon came upon the edge of his journey- a cliff that overlooked the sea where the fishermen worked. He had often come here to look at the blue flood that reflected the sun's light in a majestic manner. Most times, it was to wave to the fisherman with a brightly colored rag and watch the man do the same as a form of farewell.

The memories started to plague him, knowing that he could never have a repeat of those times.

The rain pelted the water body in a droning roar as he cried some more. Soon, he heard something new.

It was that of something, or _someone_ sloshing through mud towards him, and the distinct sound of water pelting plastic. The sound came from behind him, so he promptly believed that it was Hinata. Why she followed him, he was sure only Kami knew.

He turned, and saw the girl wearing an oversized raincoat and making her way in his direction. No doubt, she was either relying on the lightening flashes or her byakugan to see him. "Why are you following me?"

She was tempted to say that she was always following him, but took the better option of _not_ saying that. "Why are you out here?"

"I asked you a question first."

She tried to think of an answer, and nearly grinned when one came to her. "For the same reason you're here."

He raised an eyebrow as he thought of his reason. "I guess that means you don't have a reason."

"No." She felt that was a pretty good answer. She really didn't know why she followed him. She continued walking over to him and soon, she was beside where he stood on the cliff. It was solid ground, and she was thankful. There was mud in her sandals and it settled right in her instep and between her toes.

He allowed himself to go through memories again as he once more faced the sea. Time passed, and when she touched his shoulder to get his attention again, it was like an electrical shock that jolted him back to reality.

"Hai, Hinata-chan? What is it?"

"I should be asking you that question." Her answer came. "You seem more troubled than I."

The boy sighed deeply and faced her. "I am."

She looked deeply into his face. Over the years, he had had different personalities, masks if you will. From the start, he wore a happy and cheeky mask. When he was a bit older, he had seemed to her to be completely blank… for a whole year and some. Then he was happy again, but it seemed like the real thing.

Then she heard that he had an' accident'. He seemed disturbed for six months after and then after that, he was a sort of bravado. Plain and simple. That had lasted him right through the years in the academy. And then all of that had changed when she saw him motionless on his bed…then his fight with Kiba. He just upped and changed.

The masks were starting to peel away ever since then, showing his true colors and now it seemed like she was looking at the real thing right now. They were completely stripped away, and all she could see was his real face, no facades to be seen. He was…tired.

He wasn't tired and needed sleep, he wasn't tired of living and wanted to die, he wasn't tired of her companionship. He was just tired. Like he had just fought a war, lost it and was giving up.

The girl reached for his hand, chilled by the rain and grasped it. It was by no means romantic, friendly or that of fellowship. It was only that of reassurance…to let him know that she was there for him.

It was barely visible, and Hinata nearly thought that she imagined it. She may have. One split second during a lightening strike, she saw the traces of a smile tease his lips. When the flash re-occurred a second later, it was gone.

…

…

…

The two stepped into the front yard of the house at three in the morning. They both washed their feet with water that flowed off the housetop via a metal channel (gutters) from under the eaves and wiped off their wet feet on the mat upon entry in the house. They went to the bathroom in turn, changed into some dry clothes and went to the room where they were given to sleep. Inari slept with his mother, Tazuna slept on 'single' futon on the ground while team 8 got Inari's room, where Kurenai was given the bed at Tsunami's insistence. The genin, of course, took the floor by using sleeping bags.

Hinata retreated to her sleeping bag still on the floor immediately, but Naruto dawdled a bit longer while looking to Yuhi, who was stretched out on the bed. (Very straight, almost as if in a casket) Her eyes were closed but somehow…

"Gomen, for staying out so late, sensei."

"Don't let it happen again without my permission." The 'sleeping' woman said. "Now go to bed."

The Uzumaki nodded. He sharply turned, got out his sleeping bag from a corner and spread it out to sleep.

"Goodnight." Hinata muttered to him.

He really didn't feel like it was a good night, but he responded regardless. "Night."

 **=X=X=**

The morning was damp. The morning was chilly. The morning was quiet.

So… very…quiet…

Everyone was strangely silent. In fact, the person who spoke the most was in fact Shino, who muttered to his insects from time to time.

It all started when Tsunami asked Inari how his reunion with his brother went. The boy responded that the blond idiot wasn't his brother and that he laughed at him when he told him about Kaiza.

Tsunami was shocked at the news and decided that she needed to hear the news from Naruto side. He only said that he thought it was a joke, and fell into silence; remaining that way ever since. The woman started to blame herself a bit for not telling Naruto the same time that they spoke; if Naruto had known, he wouldn't have spoken that way and indeliberately create strife between him and his sibling. All because she was a bit selfish, trying to keep his 'homecoming' in high spirits, instead of spoiling it with bad news.

When Tazuna overheard the whole thing, he started to wonder if it was hasty of him to send Inari up to meet Naruto so soon. He realized that the notion was foolish and that he didn't do anything wrong. He still felt off, and tried to drink himself into a drunken stupor with moonshine liquor.

All of the family had spoken discretely, and excepting the few words that were yelled now and again early that morning, the other members of Team 8 didn't know anything. All they had to go on were the words 'Tou-san', 'dead', 'joke' and 'leave me alone.'

It made no sense.

Shino planted insects on everyone to try and find out about anything pertaining to the incident but no one really spoke anything. The one time someone did, was Tsunami announcing that breakfast was ready.

The meal was a quiet affair, save for the sounds of chewing and the occasional 'ting' noise when someone tapped their plate with their chopsticks. As soon as it ended, everyone silently gave thanks and went their separate ways: Shino went outside and sat in a tree, Hinata washed the dishes, Tsunami did some reading, Tazuna went to sleep, Inari ran off somewhere to mope, Kurenai sat next to Tazuna to watch over him and Naruto sat on the roof with his legs dangling over the edge.

What a mess.

He supported his head by placing a palm under his chin and bracing his elbow on his thigh. It was a classic poise, he figured. It was often used by people who thought 'where did I go wrong?'.

Indeed. But where did he go wrong?

Not visiting earlier? How could he have known that he would have died?

Should he have visited Wave when the suggestion was made when he was with his brothers back in the mine? No, he had already died, given the time frame.

Ignoring the little hints dropped when he first returned? He knew, and fought against the facts regardless. Now his relation with his little brother was soiled.

Laughing when he thought it was a joke? He laughed more for himself; he _tried_ to convince himself that he was still alive.

Hmm…

How did he die?

All of a sudden, he had something meandering away slightly from his feelings of grief and regret; that of curiosity. That was all he knew. The man just…died? Was he killed? Freak accident took his life? Lost at sea? Natural causes? Deadly illness? Murdered?...

He shook his head. He needed some answers. His family was sure to have them, but everyone was taut right now, tense. Perhaps he should go ask his questions somewhere else. He was sure that any adult would do; after all, the man was well known in Wave. Everyone from Inari's generation up knew about how Kaiza saved him from drowning. They must know the man's fate as well.

He tapped the roof twice with his knuckles before bringing his head down close to it. "I'm taking a walk for two hours, sensei."

"Make it an hour and half." The woman answered in a hushed, serious tone.

He pushed himself off the roof and landed with a perfect safety tap on the ground. Looking around briefly to ensure that he wasn't being followed, he walked away towards the residential area of the Town.

 **=X=X=**

The person wore a pink sleeveless kimono that had pale red edges and small plum-colored swirls that reached the ankles. Around the waist, one noticed a fairly simple whit obi which complimented the clothing. A small choker was worn around the neck and seemingly matched the dark straps on the sandals on their feet. The long black hair of the head fell over and around the shoulders, slightly surrounding a face that penned a tale of pale skin and large brown eyes.

It has been argued that there are two million pinpointed directions an eye can look in. It could also be argued that Haku was currently trying to look in all of those directions at once as she walked through the open air marketplace.

It was nigh impossible to tell. The eye movements were incredibly subtle, having been trained in like fashion to be so. But it seemed that the more she looked, the less she saw.

As her eyes scanned the marketplace, she noticed less and less details about it. That was her intention. The more she observed, the more desensitized she became as her conscience died a little each time she saw a new 'suffering' person. Haku really didn't mean to, but it was an act that was necessary, lest she give up all of her money to them and return back to her fellow nin empty handed.

They had sent her out to get the staple; some rice would do, flour or even some bread. She had to get to the supposed 'commercial' area that probably had these foodstuffs. It was a relatively simple errand. After which she brought back her contribution, the demon brothers would have already killed some wild game or perhaps 'acquired' some fish from a vendor and perhaps have a pot starting to boil upon her return.

She put a little pep in her step as she recalled hearing a growl coming from her master. Whether it be from his stomach or his throat, she took it as a sure sign that he was hungry, with either emotion or feeling, the man usually tried to alleviate the feeling and forget about it by either destructive practice or killing the first person to tell him the time of day.

Sidestepping a man who smelt strongly of bad liquor, she rounded a blind corner slowly. She had done so to ready herself in case she bumped into someone (smelly or unhygienic) or encountered a combatant. But in the back of her mind, she was always half-expecting something like what was currently transpiring.

Two of Gato's thugs dragged a man and his common-law wife from their home by their feet, the couple screaming for mercy as they were pulled savagely through the mud.

"Just give me until the end of the month, you'll have your money by then, I swear!" The man yelled, fearful for his life.

"You've been saying that for three months!" One of the pot-bellied thugs shouted back as he neared where he had stuck his crudely-made sword in the ground to free his hands for the current task he was now engaged in.

The woman was grasping at rocks embedded in the ground to stop, or even slow her captor down by using them as leverage; anchors. But the rain had loosened them, and all of them were pulled up as she was yanked and finally dumped next to the far wall where her husband was thrown as well.

"So you stole from Gato, huh?" The taller one remarked with a sneer as he fingered the handle of his cutlass that hung from his waist.

"No! We didn't steal! We didn't – oof!" The frantic man was backhanded in the jaw powerfully by the shorter man.

Haku was around twenty five meters watching the events and could still notice a few teeth fly from the man's mouth, along with blood and spittle. She winced as she watched; she never suffered such an injury, but knew regardless that it had to hurt.

"That's right. It wasn't the two of you who stole. It was just _you_." The taller one spat on the moaning man who cradled his face, obviously in pain.

Haku could barely make out something that sounded like the hurt man grunting that he didn't. Absentmindedly, she wondered if she should intervene. She could do it; it would be so easy to, but it would have serious repercussions. The news would certainly carry back to Gato, souring things between the height-challenged man and her cohorts. It would also serve to make Zabuza angry as well for not 'killing her worthless emotions'. She could practically hear the master's guttural voice spelling it out to her that she had once again failed to listen.

"You know, we probably would have left it alone if you didn't steal the money from where he keeps our wages."

The man obviously answered something he did not like as he was promptly thrust kicked in the head, sandwiching it between his foot and the wall. It was perhaps a good thing that that particular spot in the wall was made out of thin sheet board instead of concrete. His head was forced through it but the man was nearly knocked- or rather _kicked_ unconscious.

"That money, is gonna cost you an arm and a leg. Maybe your life, too."

The shorter one withdrew his foot as he looked over the woman who was still yet to say a thing. "Pity. If she was pretty, we would have been gone outta your life a'ready. With _her_ , of course." He shook his head, as if he were sorrowful. He then grinned, making the woman horrified at what the man was implying. "Too bad."

Haku grimaced. Rape and human trafficking were jostling around with each other, they vied for first place of her most intense dislikes. It was the very reason why she had never wanted to work for the shipping Magnate, knowing that he 'shipped' human cargo. But Zabuza needed the money, and she couldn't say no; she had to comply with her master's wishes. She was obligated to.

The short thug grasped the man's hand and pulled on it forcefully, stretching it out. The weak defender tried to retract it, but got another kick for his trouble. As the arm was held straight, the taller thug drew his cutlass. One could hear the age-old sound of steel sliding from leather as the bloodied, uncleaned blade was held firm in a single, white-knuckled grip.

The man's eyes widened as he started crying in his desperation. Haku could practically taste the poignancy of the moment, furiously telling herself mentally that if she wanted to intervene, it was now or never.

The moment paused briefly before the blade was brought down hard. One second, the man was fighting for his arm, the next second, he no longer needed to fight. From his elbow down, the arm was no longer his.

Blood squirted from his elbow and both the man and the woman screamed. The man's came out very throatily, sounding like a struck animal before it was cut short as the shorter man, on impulse for something still more inhumane, swung the man's own hand at him. All of the things that happened to the man: his jaw broken, teeth loss, nearly blacking out not two minutes before, shock of losing his arm, and the fact that the thin blood of his malnourished body ran out of his stump easily, he passed out. The two thugs just watched the unconscious man topple on his side and knew that the man would die from blood loss. But just to make sure-

The tall bandit plunged his cutlass into the man's side, opening a new wound in the unconscious man. Although he had blacked out, the man grunted in pain before his lungs filled up with his blood and collapsing their intended shape. The killer wrenched the cutlass around in the man, opening it further before pulling it out and wiping off the blade on the woman who was still screaming. She did even more so as the blood of her husband marred her already dirty clothes.

Haku closed her eyes and turned away from the sight. Perhaps Zabuza was right and that she needed to kill her emotions.

The two thugs watched the man's life liquid run in rivulets in the mud for a moment before walking away in the opposite direction. They had other indebted to prey on… and they were the tax collectors, debtors and executioners all rolled up into one.

Haku turned unto a side street, and made a detour. No doubt, she would be having a hard time eating her food when it would be prepared, but that didn't mean that the others would be having that problem of a lack of appetite. This place was poisoned; was she the only one on Gato's 'side' who realized it?

 **=X=X=**

Naruto finally broke through the wall of the woods and came upon the row of dilapidated houses. His first guess upon seeing them was to think that the economy for fishing had gone to shit, seeing that they couldn't even repair their own houses. When he saw the children playing in the streets with what looked like a bundle of rags and batting it about with boughs broken off from trees, he started to believe that the world now disliked Wave, and was singling it out for misery; it now shouldered all the sins of the world, and was paying the price of it.

'Looks like some bastardized version of 'bat and ball' or something. Without actual bats or balls.' The thought came to him. 'But are they so poor that they can't afford to carve their own bats from wood, or even purchase a cheap rubber ball?'

He leapt up into one of the tall border trees that overlooked the youngsters. Settling down carefully and confidently, he then lifted his shirt with one hand before bringing up his other hand up to his armpit and rested his arm over his first gold seal. Slowly but surely, he pumped chakra into it and imagined his desire from it. A single piece of gold materialized from it into the selfsame hand and made the boy grin as he watched the twenty children playing, not too far in distance but still oblivious of his presence.

'Focus, don't fail me now.'

He eyes scanned the targets, memorizing their faces, obvious character traits and clothing. He filed them away in his mind for his order before he took a deep breath.

He threw the gold piece at the smallest one who watched the others. The metal had bumped the girl on the thigh and fell in front of her on the ground, the yellow sharply contrasting that of the gray-colored ground. As the girl was about to speak up in alarm, Naruto released his gravity seal and his arm became exponentially 'lighter' and 'quicker'. His hand flashed to the gold seal and started palming gold to throw.

In the space of seven seconds, all ten children were struck on the legs by the gold pieces, only enough to attract attention but not enough to hurt. To each got their own piece, but none knew what it was.

"What is it?" One cried as he closely looked at it.

"One hit you too?" Another ran over to him with her piece.

The smallest boy stared at the lustrous object and grinned like a piano-keyboard, still in the trial of losing his milk teeth. "I bet'cha mommy knows!" He ran to his home in the way only a six year old could, and not three seconds had passed properly when all the other children took the example and ran home as well.

Naruto smiled. He planned on giving more, but all things in to their own time. He let himself drop out of the tree, reengaged his Level 4 gravity seal and continued making his way to his destination.

He moved quickly across the flat until he reached the row of homes and grimaced. The smell coming from this area was horrible. The people were using pit latrines; while he and his brothers had erected one and used it, they also used de-odorizing salts and powders and solutions, but these people used none. Defecation stunk, and the stench was increased tenfold after practically ripening in their holes.

Focus chipped in, and directed his attention to the last house that he was heading, and noted that it was the same story as everyone else's. The ability somehow managed to also tune out the smell. He briefly wondered if he was doing the right thing by trying to find out abo-

Memory cursed him- " _That blond idiot isn't my brother."_

He shook his head but the memory remained. He continued making his way to the house and ended the journey by hopping over a small puddle of mud and landed just in front of the back door.

"Oi! Jōhō!

He didn't hear an answer. Perhaps the old man was getting deaf.

"Joho!"

"Wha?! Who'zat?!"

Naruto wisely remained silent. Who knew what could happen if he shouted his name in Wave. He could be given a welcome wagon like a prodigal son, or mobbed by old people who wished to pinch his cheeks. Or begged to death. None of those were inviting complications.

He heard some shuffling inside coming towards the door and soon, the cheap sheet-board was opened to reveal a wizened old man who hunched over, making him appear five feet tall.

"Who'zat?!"

"It's Naruto."

The man inched closer to the boy to peer at his face, his eyesight was obviously failing him. As soon as he recognized the whiskered cheeks, the old man broke out in a rather pink and yellow grin.

"Naruto? Is that you?!"

"Yes sir. It's me. Can I come in?"

"Sure, sure! Just wipe yo' feet, I don't want no mud in 'ere. Besides, yo' friend Shurui just cleaned up, and she wants it to stay dat way, too."

He nodded to show that he would comply. He took them off in the doorway, pulsed his chakra lightly through it to make the mud on them drop off of it like a snake shedding skin and set them in the house, closing the door behind him. As he turned once more to face the old man, he noted that the interior was very frugal- that was putting it nicely. Although in a state of disrepair, it was as clean as a whistle. Someone was cleaning in an effort to compensate.

"So Shurui's here?" Naruto remembered playing with the girl when he was younger, even if was only for a few times. She was the old man's granddaughter.

"Nah, nah. She's out trying to get somethin' so she can feed di both of us. So what yo' want?" The old man hobbled over to a jug on a wooden table and removed chewing tobacco from it. Without hesitation, the man had the chewing-pleasure drug between his decaying molars, chomping away.

Naruto took a deep breath before exhaling some of it, saving the rest for speech. "I want to know about Kaiza."

"Kaiza? Yo' daddy? Don't'cha know what happ'n to 'im?"

"N…no. I wasn't here, sir." The Uzumaki felt slightly ashamed of himself. He could recall others of his generation in the academy laugh at his ignorance.

The decrepit old man looked to his own forehead, trying to remember what he knew about the fisherman. "I remembuh Shurui tellin' me. She sez it wasn't a pretty sight."

Naruto paled. 'What happened to him?! Did a wild animal maul him or something?'

"She sez to me dat dis short man named Gato had his arms chopped off in the square. He must 'ave died o' blood loss. I'm sorry, son."

Naruto did something that surprised Joho, himself even. He chuckled. Very dryly. _Very_.

"So he was killed, huh. A man named Gato?"

"Hai. Sorry for tellin' yuh bad news."

"No." Naruto shook his head. "I'm sorry. I was only ignorant. But I'm gonna fix that."

"We done?" The old man chewed the used-up tobacco one last time before spitting it through an open window. He turned back around just in time to see Naruto roll down his shirt. "Wat'cha doin', son?"

"Nothing. But hai. We're done." The blond reassured. He looked around briefly before his eyes settled on a cooking pot. He went to it and dropped five gold pieces inside. Fortunately, the man eyesight was poor enough to not see what he was doing but no doubt Shurui would find it when she tried to cook later. He quickly took up his sandals and opened the door, setting them down just outside. He turned back to face the old man. "Tell Shurui I said hello."

"A'right."

Naruto nodded and shut the door behind him.

 **Author's note: The previous dialogue held a mixture of Jamaica's patois/creole and traditional speech from the nineteenth century popular among lesser fortunate and under-privileged black people of North America. (It's not racist in any way, I'm just saying.) But not all readers can read this fluently or are they experienced with this butchered language; neither is Google Translate. So to remedy this, there is a 'straight' English version repeated after this note for those readers' benefit. To skip, just scroll to the next author's note.**

"Joho!"

"What?! Who's that?!"

Naruto wisely remained silent. Who knew what could happen if he shouted his name in Wave. He could be given a welcome wagon like a prodigal son, or mobbed by old people who wished to pinch his cheeks. Or begged to death. None of those were inviting complications.

He heard some shuffling inside coming towards the door and soon, the cheap sheet-board was opened to reveal a wizened old man who hunched over, making him appear five feet tall.

"Who's that?!"

"It's Naruto."

The man inched closer to the boy to peer at his face, his eyesight was obviously failing him. As soon as he recognized the whiskered cheeks, the old man broke out in a rather pink and yellow grin.

"Naruto? Is that you?!"

"Yes sir. It's me. Can I come in?"

"Sure, sure! Just wipe your feet; I don't want any mud in here. Besides, your friend Shurui just cleaned up, and she wants it to stay that way, too."

He nodded to show that he would comply. He took them off in the doorway, pulsed his chakra lightly through it to make the mud on them drop off of it like a snake shedding skin and set them in the house, closing the door behind him. As he turned once more to face the old man, he noted that the interior was very frugal- that was putting it nicely. Although in a state of disrepair, it was as clean as a whistle. Someone was cleaning in an effort to compensate.

"So Shurui's here?" Naruto remembered playing with the girl when he was younger, even if was only for a few times. She was the old man's granddaughter.

"No, no. She's out trying to get something so she can feed the both of us. So what do you want?" The old man hobbled over to a jug on a wooden table and removed chewing tobacco from it. Without hesitation, the man had the chewing-pleasure drug between his decaying molars, chomping away.

Naruto took a deep breath before exhaling some of it, saving the rest for speech. "I want to know about Kaiza."

"Kaiza? Your father? Don't you know what happened to him?"

"N…no. I wasn't here, sir." The Uzumaki felt slightly ashamed of himself. He could recall others of his generation in the academy laugh at his ignorance.

The decrepit old man looked to his own forehead, trying to remember what he knew about the fisherman. "I remember Shurui telling me. She says it wasn't a pretty sight."

Naruto paled. 'What happened to him?! Did a wild animal maul him or something?'

"She says to me that this short man named Gato had his arms chopped off in the square. He must have died of blood loss. I'm sorry, son."

Naruto did something that surprised Joho, himself even. He chuckled. Very dryly. _Very_.

"So he was killed, huh. A man named Gato?"

"Hai. Sorry for telling you bad news."

"No." Naruto shook his head. "I'm sorry. I was only ignorant. But I'm gonna fix that."

"We're done?" The old man chewed the used-up tobacco one last time before spitting it through an open window. He turned back around just in time to see Naruto roll down his shirt. "What're you doing, son?"

"Nothing. But hai. We're done." The blond reassured. He looked around briefly before his eyes settled on a cooking pot. He went to it and dropped five gold pieces inside. Fortunately, the man eyesight was poor enough to not see what he was doing. He quickly took up his sandals and opened the door, setting them down just outside. He turned back to face the old man. "Tell Shurui I said hello."

"Alright."

Naruto nodded and shut the door behind him.

 **Author's note: Sorry for any inconvenience caused. The word quota will be increased accordingly.**

 **=X=X=**

He looked up from the ground towards the house as he approached it, his face surly and his mind in a haze. Such were the multitude of thoughts that ran amok in his mind.

Who the hell was this Gato?!

He killed his father?! Why?!

How come none of his family told him?!

Why?!

His head ached. With all of his advanced intelligence, wisdom and cleverness was completely different of having the knowledge. _That_ , he knew.

By all means, although the sun was hiding behind a cloud that would probably bring more rain, his internal clock told him that it was two p.m. He suddenly felt the need to get some sleep; he had missed most of his hours last night and tomorrow, his grandfather was to continue the work on his bridge.

"Some oji-chan." He muttered to himself.

He didn't care anymore about the façade, about the pretense. To hell with it, precaution and logic be damned.

If he had to go in and yell out the questions to get Tazuna to talk about Kaiza, so be it. If his whole team found about his relation to these people, let them. It was worthless to them. They would be able to prove nothing. He was 'in the village the whole time'.

Without conscious thought, his walking became more aggressive and he was soon stomping home, instead of just walking. He marched under the tree where Shino was still sitting in looking out, not noticing his teammate's presence.

Shino saw the rather irate looking Uzumaki practically beat a new path to the house and decided that something of interest must have transpired with him. Eager for new information, he mentally summoned his insect that was still on Naruto.

The kikaichu beetle 'heard' his master's call, and crawled from it's hiding place.

Naruto didn't know… he didn't feel. It's like he _sensed_ something creeping from just behind his neck, or more specifically the hood of his clothing. He merely swatted at it thinking it was a mosquito. Bringing back his hand to his face to look at it, he didn't see any such insect and wondered if it were possible for 'Focus' to fail him. He turned fully to look around to see if he could still swat the pest.

He saw the black insect, but his keen vision told him that it was no mosquito, or even a sand-fly that was native to the area.

'Kikaichu beetle?' He saw the insect look as if it were flying to a tree and believed he could see Shino inhabiting in the high branches.

His mind quickly connected all the dots, filling all the blank spaces. His stomach lurched as he fell to his knees in the mud and yelled in his anger.

The sound of it was truly primal, sounding like that of a wounded beast; one that has been wounded once too many. All of the events surrounding Wave had pushed him to the edge, and he lost his patience.

He had lost so much time with his family in the past, he had lost his family to death, he had lost bonds with them and now he'd lost his privacy? How long had he no privacy to the Aburame?!

Kurenai, who was inside when she heard the yell, quickly rushed to the window and say the Uzumaki on the ground screaming his frustration. She saw the Uzumaki get up to his feet and went rapidly through handseals, the order she recognized was for the fireball, that of the continuous streaming flamethrower.

Naruto's handseals ended, but he abandoned the customary tradition to yell techniques to help with control. He clenched his fists and held them to his sides as his chest ballooned with air and fire release chakra.

The boy's eyes teared up as they slowly closed with the pressure of the technique soon to pass. A single moment passed before it did.

Naruto's mouth was closed before it opened with a feral scream, that of a hellish inferno that nearly rivaled the size and scale of his brother's **Flame God Rising** technique. The fire caught up to the unfortunate insect still making its way to its master, and the beetle perished as it was burnt to death, turned to ashes and the ashes themselves incinerated in the near white-hot heat, all in a single second.

The fire itself was still going, and Shino himself had to hurriedly substitute out of the tree to the roof of the house before it too, was burnt to nothing. Kurenai jumped out of the house through the window she had been looking through and dashed towards Naruto the second she hit ground.

Naruto's jutsu had barely lasted for five seconds, but it was more than enough to suit his needs, purposes, but it left him drained, as the technique died in tandem; running out of chakra for fuel. And the fact remained that it still hadn't assuaged his rage. His body unconsciously began calling on the Kyuubi's chakra to support his erratic inner bodily systems, only enough to make him look feral. His pupils of his eyes were slit, his iris became blood red and his whisker deepened while his nails lengthened.

Kurenai caught up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Naruto, what do you think you're doing!" She yelled at him while shaking his shoulder savagely, making him turn around to face her.

He turned fully and stared her in the eyes with his feral visage and shrugged of her grip and growled. " **Leave me ALONE!** "

She backpedaled two steps back or three in shock. Shino, from his vantage point noted the boy's appearance and momentarily forgot his own anger at Naruto for dispatching his kikaichu, now awed by dreadful fascination. Naruto turned abruptly and walked away into the woods. The birds fleeing the sanctuary of their trees in his general path warned all others not to follow in the direction where he had headed, and the two people wisely heeded the caution. A large tree toppled over and crashed to the ground in the distance, as if done to cement their decision.

The rest of the family (and Hinata) bugged outside in a hurry to see what had happened, prompted by the scream and the sudden spike in high temperature. All they had to go on was the disappearance of the largest tree in the front of the home, the temperature sweltering, and the two normally stoic Shino and Kurenai plainly disheveled, as if they were intimidated by someone superior in prowess. Neither of the two said a thing in response to the questions that ensued from newcomers.

 **=X=X=**

She gripped the three senbon firmly between her fingers in a closed fist and eyed the human-shaped target that was nailed to the tree. The target was still; this was far too easy. Although there were three pinprick-sized holes in three places on it, she was confident that she could do it. If she couldn't, then she'd better find a new line of work.

"Come on! I want to see!" Gozu scream-whispered. "I got some money riding on this!"

"Yeah," Meizu replied, as if in a comment. "And you're gonna lose it. I've never seen Haku miss. Better to just hand it over now, save yourself the embarrassment."

Haku smiled to herself. She didn't get complimented often, and although it was more in comment than directed at her specifically, Meizu's confidence in her was strongly appreciated. She readied herself to throw.

She hurled the senbon all at once. Each of them, at the distance of fifty yards, made their way into a dot-sized hole in the target, two in the neck, one in the heart. Two of them were decidedly deadly; one to die of blood loss from the jugular vein, one from puncturing the body's most important muscle but the last to inflict deep-stasis state on the victim, akin to death.

The brothers rushed up to see and as soon as Gozu saw that no new holes were made by the senbon, only the old ones filled, the man dug into his pocket to give up his betted money, counted as losses. He did it silently, but Meizu jeered him. After a minute or two of basic and infantile teasing, The Demon Brother grew serious once more.

"Anyway, Haku," Meizu began. "You're gonna scope out the house tonight, huh?"

They had planned to send Haku to go 'investigate' the Bridge Builder's home, to see what the man's state was, but more importantly, to size up the ninja who were guarding the man. They still knew that all of them had to die, but Zabuza wanted to know what type of person the jounin was. He had misjudged the Mizukage when he had attempted the doomed assassination, and ever since then, he had learnt that background and skill research on other ninja could be beneficial. Perhaps the very reason he had never lost a fight since then by knowing who and what he was up against. Like the Water Shadow. He fell under the class of 'What'.

"Hai. I was going to go tonight at around three to five a.m., when everyone's sure to be asleep." She answered. "If the rain falls tonight, I would be able to use my ice mirrors more efficiently, not to mention muffle any sound I could make."

"Haku, you're even more silent than a ghost. And I should know. I had my ear on the ground when you walked once and I couldn't hear a thing." Gozu piped up.

"Arigato for the vote of confidence." Haku replied. She then noted that the man became slack jawed and seemed to be staring past her. At his side, his brother had gained the same expression. A bit confused, she turned around and her eyes widened as she took in the sight.

The sight that was of a massive conical-shaped flame that stretched out at a 45' angle that burned nearly white-hot in the distance. Of its immense size, and the chakra output necessary to pull off something like that boggled her mind, never having seen something of that nature or stature before. They watched it for a few seconds more as it continued, before it receded, closer to the ground.

"Ho-ly…shit." Meizu choked out. "What the hell in Kami's name was that?"

"Must be some kind of fire jutsu." Haku stuttered. The image was becoming fixed in memory, and it was horrible to think about. She figured that it would only take a second for a technique like that to scorch anyone to nothing. Hell, she doubted that her **Hyoton** could stand up to that.

"Wait a minute. Wasn't that just where we know the bastard bridge builder lives?" Gozu croaked. "Did one of his body guards do _that_? What kind of ninja would be able to have the reserves or even the ability to do that? What kind of rank are they at?"

Brown eyes widened at the implications and without even considering the wisest course of action, Haku ran off to the house to investigate, ignoring the brother's call to wait.

 **=X=X=**

She finally came to a stop from dashing through the trees and came to a stop just fifty meters from the home, still in the forested area. She absentmindedly noted that she was still in her civilian clothing, having not changed into her ninja set since the morning's dawn. Perhaps she could use this to her advantage.

She fell out of the tree and landed in a squat. If she was dressed plainly, she might as well play the part. At least that way, she wouldn't be suspected. By all means, anyone would think that she had seen the jutsu and like most civilians, come to see what the big fuss was about by being obvious about it.

And so she did.

After suppressing her chakra to what she believed to be the low levels of that of a civilian's, she began walking Forcing herself to walk and make noise was almost foreign to her. Ever since her master had instilled in her the ways and means of the **Silent Killing** technique, she had latched on to the idea, being as silent as the best of those who did it. She practiced it every waking moment, made a habit out of it and now, to do the opposite felt like trying to learn a new language.

She stepped on a rotting branch and made sure to step on the one following it. After that, she only made noise at random intervals, trying to not to make it seem that she was trying to walk on every noisemaker element on the ground. Soon, she was in the yard, and made a show of looking around, avoiding the use of peripherals like a ninja would.

All she could see was ashes, spread around a specific area but had what seemed like roots as the focal point of it. 'A tree?'

This was definitely where the jutsu took place. There was even the supporting evidence of the smell of wood-smoke, and the place felt really warm, when the area she was previously in felt chilly from the rains that fell recently. Perhaps because of her bloodline made her more sensitive to heat; certainly, the heat should have dissipated by the time she got here. Hot air rises, and cool air should rush to replace it.

'But why is the tree burnt? Was it done on a whim? Training, maybe?'

Her throat became slightly dry when that reasoning had popped into her head. 'Training?! That they perform a jutsu of that scale just for training?!' "No." She said out loud, calming herself down. 'Maybe it's just a show of force. But they don't know about us ninja. Tazuna doesn't know about us so it couldn't possibly have been done from his end. Maybe it's to frighten the bandits.'

But that didn't explain the tree. If they wanted to intimidate, to make a show of it, they would have sent the jutsu straight up so it would be even more exponential and more pronounced.

"What are you doing here?"

"Wha?!" Her eyes snapped to her right, whose space was inhabited by a woman who certainly did not lack in good looks, or a very icy glare. Haku herself nearly formed an ice weapon to defend herself with but in the nick of time, remained true to character and backpedaled quickly, hinting substantially that she was startled badly.

Which she actually was. She did expect a ninja to accost her, but not in that fashion.

"Uh…uh…" 'Alright Haku, just stutter like you feel guilty of snooping!' She prepped herself furiously. "I-I-I was j-just trying to find about the f-f-fire, Ms. Ninja ma'am!" 'Perfect! Keep doing that!'

'Ms. Ninja ma'am?' "The fire?" Kurenai raised an eyebrow, still maintaining her glare.

"H-Hai! The fire! Like 'whoosh'! That much fire. I could see it from in my yard!"

"Hmm."

"It h-happened here, didn't it?" Haku pointed nervously at the ashes that littered around the roots that peeked from the ground.

"Leave. Don't ever come back. Am I clear?" Kurenai frowned heavily at the girl.

"Uh, no problem!" Haku dusted out of there, making it look as if she was scared into leaving. Out of the corner of her vision as she hurried away, she saw the woman stare after her, before going back into the house.

 **She hid out and waited** for night to fall before this time, she went back to Tazuna's house, progressing more stealthily than before. It was now night, and it would do well, to not be caught. If she did, then the kunoichi from before who had interloped her would certainly suspect her, if she hadn't already, making a bad situation worse.

She approached from the west the first time, now she did so from the south-west. In fact, she was about to step into the yard when she saw from a new perspective in a new direction how branches at waist height to shoulder height were broken. This excited her curiosity.

'Looks like someone tried to beat a new path or something.'

She considered the possibilities for a moment before weighing her options. She had risks going on for both choices; investigate the yard, or investigate where the way the broken branches might lead.

It was not the best time to scope out the yard. It was almost certain for no one to be asleep at seven p.m. and she ran the risk of getting caught, particularly by the probable-jounin. She _had_ managed to get into her blind spot, after all, even though she had let her guard down to truly get into character.

She could try following where it seemed someone impatient might have come or gone in a huff, not bothering to take the beaten path, Perhaps it might reveal some answers at the end. Or be a dead end and a complete waste of time.

She had learnt from her time with Zabuza that information was valuable. And she could not afford to be careless.

With a slight sigh, she walked off in the direction of the broken branches. Soon, she came across a recent felled tree, which, for all reasons and intentions, was in the person's way.

She hurried now, certain that this would _not_ be a dead end and a complete waste of time.

 **=X=X=**

Naruto's clone set the sticks ablaze before dispersing in a small ball of fire that dissipated. As the fire among the wood blazed, he picked up a long and thin piece of wood, and poked the wood on the edges of the fire closer to it's focal point and the happy blaze of the fire crackled for more. But his own mood was still far from the 'up and up',

He had simmered down somewhat, and all he had done was to sit in one place for five goddamn hours. He was sure that if he even so much as gotten up, he would immediately head back to the house, and commit murder.

"Of all the dirty…insect harboring…flea bitten…fuckin' Aburame." Naruto muttered.

His throat still felt a bit sore, and as much as he was never alone, considering the fact that his brothers were a mental link away, a demon fox in a seal on his gut (Kurama's mentality was with the brothers ever since Naruto left the village.) Currently in the hometown of his family, he felt lonely. Never truly alone, but lonely.

He had wished for it all day, but now he discovered that he abhorred it.

The years of his past rushed up to collide with him, recalling his state of being forever alone in a village of thousands upon thousands. Before he met Kurama, he was all by himself and now, it had crashed down upon him, threatening to crush him under its weight.

It was what it was.

He poked the fire again and sighed. 'Wonder if Kurama's supervising them or something.'

His mind conjured up an image of his twelve brothers, being ordered around by a voice in their heads. The idea was ridiculous. And yet entirely possible.

The Uzumaki laughed. Almost psychotically.

He realized that he must have sounded like a crazy person, laughing when he felt horrible, for no good reason. 'Maybe I am going crazy.'

He suppressed a yawn that would have moved key elements of his face around by standing up. Delaying himself for a second, he then stretched before he closed his eyes. His right hand reached behind him and touched the baton's handle, loosening it up to ensure speedy withdrawal should the need arise.

Unfortunately, if this didn't go right, the need would probably arise.

He held his breath. The night was silent, save for the crackle of his small fire and the chirp of crickets who entertained themselves with song. The breeze blew toward him gently, slightly fanning the flames that created flickering shadows from the yellow-orange light.

He didn't smell anything. He didn't hear anything. He only felt.

Paranoia.

He knew that the feeling and the theories surrounding the idea had credit and merit to it. The very base of it, to know when you're being watched was like a hard-wired instinct that was ingrained into an individual upon birth. So when he felt it, he knew that eyes were watching him, as strange as it might be in his remote area.

'Hmm. What to do. Call 'em out? Ignore it? Try to find them, maybe?'

He weighed his options. Perhaps it would be best if he turned his back to the fire to avoid his pupils contracting and leaving him night-blind, then call out the person. Seemed logical.

"If you have meat you need to roast, I'm willing to share the fire!" He spoke up, scanning the trees in his peripherals while readying himself.

He didn't get a response right away, but better late than never, one supposed.

One minute later, he heard some footsteps coming from his slight right ahead of him. (His one 'o' clock) His hands were already in their pre-battle positions, his right hand at his side and almost reaching his baton holster and his left hand in front of him, palm out in case he had to intercept anything. His blood pressure rose up a notch with each footstep that neared him and just as he thought he couldn't stand any more, the owner of the footsteps broke the trees.

He was fairly surprised to see a girl who looked like she was trying her best to walk around terrain debris like loose rocks and obstacles like small, low growing assorted shrubbery. In the poor light, he could make out that she wore a long pink kimono and was blessed with long, jet-black hair and the face was very, _very_ easy to look at.

"Gomenasai. I saw the fire, but I didn't know how to approach you." The person remarked, but the apology still intact.

Naruto's eyes squinted a little in distrust and scrutiny. 'Hmm. Must be a civvie. Didn't walk like a ninja, makes slightly stumbling motions in uneven places. No KI. Pity I can't really get a feel for chakra all that good yet but the person gives the impression of being a civilian. Almost as if she's trying to.'

"Hello?" The person spoke again.

The Uzumaki considered his last thought, and took out his kunai out of his pouch, deliberately making a show about it. Perhaps he could intimidate the person to showing their true colors, if they haven't already. "Who are you?" He growled out threateningly, waving the kunai about to give the notion that he was going to use it.

The person's eyes widened in shock. "My name's Haku. I only came here when I saw the fire!"

"Why?!"

"It's been r-raining a lot! The thought of anyone creating a fire out here, m-much less from something dry was unimaginable!" She stuttered a bit in her speech and held both of her hands in front of her in a placating gesture.

"I believe it's obvious that only a person, and not nature that could start a fire after it rained. Did you think there was a forest fire?! Leave!" He released some KI at the girl, then he threw the kunai at the ground, just six inches from her feet.

At the action, Haku stumbled backwards, losing her balance and started toppling in obvious fright. Hesitating for a split second, he ran towards her, closing the distance of four meters quickly, and caught her by one of her flailing arms before she fell to the ground, still strewn with a few rocks and mud patches here and there.

'Definitely a civilian.'

He yanked her up and set her straight, ignoring her attempts to beat his grip off of her wrist with her free hand. "Ah, Kami. Gomen, for scaring you."

More hysterics.

He sighed. "Look. I'm real sorry for trying to scare you off. I thought you were a kunoichi. Can't be too careful, you know."

The hysterics slowed and soon came to a complete stop as the girl opened her clenched eyes to stare into his eyes. "Huh?"

The blond boy let go and the girl retracted her arm immediately. She turned sharply and begun to leave hurriedly, navigating the difficulties from before. As Naruto watched her go, he once again felt the crushing, depressing weight of loneliness from before, decidedly increasing the farther and farther away she got.

He stroked his forehead as if he was lamenting his fate. "Don't go! Come back!"

The sound of footsteps grew fainter.

"Please!" He yelled out, almost mournfully.

His cry seemingly echoed, haunting him. Other than that, he heard nothing but the noisy silence of the night.

He strode back to the tree where he first was and leaned against it. Scarcely a minute passed when he slid down the trunk of it in a heap before he hugged his thighs to his face. Tears started to run down his face as all the events of his day pulsed through his memories, never allowing him to forget.

 _But…Tsunami-san says that he…passed on._

 _That blond idiot isn't my brother._

 _She sez to me dat dis short man named Gato had his arms chopped off in the square. He must 'ave died 'o blood loss. I'm sorry, son._

He was all alone. He had wished it all day, and now he had gotten it. But it was when he was alone that he was plagued by his memories because the present held a reasonable distraction from the past.

He believed that he heard slow footsteps approaching but he took no notice of it. After what felt like months in his fetal-like position, he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder.

He was mildly startled, but he did not look up. Instead, he looked through the crack between his upper torso and his leg and saw that the girl from before was crouching beside him. The distraught boy lifted his head slightly and tried to wipe away the signs of bereavement with his shirt sleeve before looking towards her fully. His slight sobbing fell completely silent as he peered up into the vastness of her large brown eyes.

"Are you alright?"

 ***Groans.* This chapter was really hard at the beginning (probably because I let it grow cold over the break); I found it really difficult to capture the emotions. It got slightly easier after the murder of the indebted, but strangely, everything from Haku's broad P.O.V. was the easiest. The ending for the chapter was too.**

 **Haku's a girl! Let that be clear! She wasn't a guy at first, she isn't both genders, she has always been one (At least in my mind when it comes to the show itself. Did they check under the clothes?) in this fic. So no guy history, or origins. That 'fem. Haku' tag in the summary told you from the start, at least six months ago!**

 **Note: The tree that Naruto... pushed down. Several factors show that he can.**

 **-In the anime, he stopped a big ass snake with a splinter of a kunai when he was enraged and using the feral state.**

 **-In this fic, I powered him up some. He and his brothers were gold mining with gravity seals. I'm surprised that he can lift his arms. So feral state plus hidden strength equals...poor tree.**

 **Huh. Would you look at that. 13k? I wonder if that's a reference.**

 **I'm posting two chapters tonight; over 23k, I might add. If you don't see it now, check back within two hours. (It's done, I'm just dawdling with it.)**

 **Anyway, don't forget to review and all that jazz. It's good for morale. The higher my morale, the better off you'll be! Would I lie to you? (Despite being a guy you have never met or will most likely never meet in your life.)**

 **Valete omnes.**

 **MRAY 4TW.**

 _ **Final miscellaneous and irrelevant note: Let it be known that I write poetry as well, almost as well as my big sister. Posted as a part of my UNIVERSAL UPDATE. Here's a Teaser-**_

 _ **Fanfiction Writer**_

 _ **My stories start with a death, rocky development of the hero,**_

 _ **Some tragedies here and there for seasoning.**_

 _ **Am I troubled? Wrong? I don't think so.**_

 _ **There's nothing wrong with my reasoning.**_

 _ **Hectic life here, heated dialogue there,**_

 _ **Love triangles and intense fears.**_

 _ **A beating took place in a street, someone died in their bed,**_

 _ **Many ideas mill about in the nucleus of my head.**_

 _ **(That was only a bit under twenty percent of that particular poem. I hope you'll stop by.)**_

 **(UNIVERSAL UPDATE COMPLETED.)**


	25. Chapter 25

**Breaking Limits**

 **I've made it clear that I read my own stories. The reasons why I posted two at relatively the same time are:**

 **-I don't like how the scene with Haku and Naruto ended.** _ **That would have bugged me for two weeks.**_

 **-I don't like number 24. (Strange. I like the number 25, though.)**

 **-What I wanted to establish in Wave in chapter 24 still hadn't happened. Lets hear it for the… Nah, I ain't spoiling my original twist for Wave for B. Limits. I guess the one for L. Twice is original too. Everyone said so. If you found an idea like the one you're about to, lemme know so I can cry about it.**

 **-I guess I love y'all too much. (*sniff*) Love me back by reviewing!**

 **Disclaimer: 'Okay MRAY, just don't spaz out.' "Ahem. I don't own Naruto."**

 **(Flies into a rage and throws his chair through window, smashing the glass.) "Graaahh! Why the fuck do I have to keep doing this damn thing, huh?! Who spends their time going through stories, searching for those who they can sue?! There are almost 400,000 stories for Naruto on this site ALONE! Good luck finding this one! Uraaghh!"**

 **25.**

There was a near eternal pause before Naruto broke his stare. "No."

He had very nearly felt like he was drowning when he had looked into her eyes. Nearly dying in fact. But strangely, he felt his heart pounding in his ears and he was suddenly…lucid. The strange thing was, the sensation almost felt enjoyable. He only looked away lest the girl think him touched in the head.

He had missed her smile to herself. She had had the experience of others have that expression when they saw her. "So what's wrong, then?"

"Uhh…" Here he was, out in some Kami-forsaken forest trying to keep his cool and his grief in, then a pretty girl shows up, threatens her to leave and when she does, he has an emotional breakdown. Then she comes back to him, and he didn't know what to say. He supposed he could spare some personal details, but not delving into anything ninja-related. What harm would a little personal information do if it were given to a complete stranger if the person had no use for it? Besides, other people knew in Wave. But the thing was, he had never seen her before. That means that she had come to Wave during his absence.

"I...today…" He stumbled over his speech a little. She nodded to him to continue so he tried to think of the phrase before actually trying to say it. "I found out today that my father died. He was murdered and he was one of the best things that ever happened to me."

"Oh. I'm…sorry for your loss. Although I don't know you, I offer my condolences." The girl replied.

"My name's…Naruto."

"Naruto?" Haku could hardly believe her luck. All she had to do was bury small questions inside her statements and she could acquire some vital information. He wouldn't get suspicious of her underhanded interrogation and perhaps she could even figure out the team's weaknesses. Although she wondered if he was lying to her about the name. His grief was sincere, but what kind of name was 'Fishcake'? Although he did appear truthful. After-all he didn't seem to have enough clarity to lie. If worse came to worse, she could just kill…

She shook her head slightly to dismiss the thought as her companion began speaking again. "Hai. Naruto. I bet you're thinking of a ramen buffer."

"I was."

"It's maelstrom. Multiple meanings but I prefer maelstrom. Turbulence, whirlpool…" He trailed off and sighed. "You said your name's Haku, wasn't it?"

"I did, Naruto-san."

He smiled a little. "Don't people more often than not give that name to boys?"

"Who says I'm not? I am a boy." Haku stated firmly.

"…" Naruto frowned. "I recall hearing someone mention your name, saying that they liked to peek on women in bathhouses. Was it you? I don't like perverts, just so you know."

"Must be someone else. It wasn't me."

"Are you sure?" Naruto frowned even more deeply, also giving him a rather impressive glare.

"Why would I peek on women? I can just jo-"

"Join them?"

'Crap.'

Naruto laughed a little. "Judging by the look on your face, I can see that you realized that you walked into that one. Heh."

Haku became crestfallen and snorted a little, making the Uzumaki cease his mirth. "Why would you lie about your gender? I mean, well…you're uhh…" He blushed a little. "…Very pretty and all that."

"Hmph." She was still upset. Not so because she was unable to fool him, but more-so because he still had amazing mental agility to come up with something like that on the spot. She had never prepared for a pointed question like that, so she had never had a rehearsed answer.

"I'm no expert on this, but if you want to look like a guy, you'd need to, uhh, shave off all your hair, maybe smear some charcoal under your chin to make it look like puberty's giving you stubble or something. Come to think of it, why would you pretend to be a male anyway?"

"I'm always being pursued aggressively by the opposite sex. Almost to the point of fearing for my chastity." 'It's actually because males are more imposing or intimidating.' She thought to herself. 'At least that's what Zabuza-sama says, at least. I need to go back to be the one asking the questions. Think, Haku.'

"What? Well, if it's worth anything, I apologize for my sex's transgressions and obstinacy pertaining to their hormones."

"Um. Arigato. So, I'm guessing that you came all the way out here to grieve?"

"Well…that's part of the reason. Thing is, I got into a fight with some friends and I came here to cool off." He admitted. "He's a real prick."

"So you're a hothead? Wouldn't have pegged you for one." She noted. "Although you _did_ threaten me."

"I'm really sorry about that. I hadn't completely reigned in my anger when you found me. The bastard was…how do I put this? He thinks my privacy was worth about the same as chicken shit."

"Four ryo?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Huh? Four ryo?" He started to chuckle. "Heh. I get it. Garden manure."

She smiled brightly. "Of course. So I take it you're a ninja then? You look like one, with those clothes and your headband."

"Yeah. I'm from the Leaf."

'Alright. Now we're going to get serious.' "You look plenty strong; if I were your friend, I wouldn't have picked a fight with you."

"I'm not one to boast. Besides, there's a shit-ton of people who are stronger than me. I need to train, train, train. If I still have some time after that, I'll train some more." He stated with a grin.

Haku stopped to think, her mind going a mile a minute. 'He got into a fight with a friend, huh. And he thinks he's not strong enough so he needs to train. Right? Hmm. He said that he's not one to boast so that means he knows he's strong but doesn't want to gloat about it. But how am I supposed to know that he's responsible for that fire technique?' Her eyes wandered to the fire that he had built. 'A lot of rain had fallen recently. I doubt that he could start a fire with wet kindling with just matches, or even a flammable substance. Only thing capable is to use a jutsu. That means he can use katon. And there's the key phrase 'came here to cool off.' He must've done it, and then practically marched his way here, still upset. Not to mention there were some deep footprints showing that he stomped…and the fact that a toppled tree was laying on it's side right next to the tracks, with overturned dirt and some roots in the marching tracks. The tree was in his way. A fully mature, completely grown tree.'

She gulped slightly, wondering how strong he was currently. Was she actually the one in control now? Or was it he? She had better be prepared for an eventuality but he hadn't suspected her yet. Hell, he was warming up to her.

"You don't have any bruises on you, as far as I can see. Does your friend look that good?"

Naruto growled in the back of his throat, slightly unnerving her. "I don't think of him as my friend anymore. Anyway, I've got this, I dunno, some kind of notion that I have to look out for people who are lesser fortunate than I am. I mean, it's a good personality trait and value but somehow, I feel like it's stemming from my own past and…maybe genes. Not sure."

"So…your deceased father raised you that way? Is he a ninja like you?"

Naruto smiled. "Nah. Well, he did have the core values of charity, I mean. It's just that he wasn't my biological father. He adopted me, in a sense. You might've heard about heard about him. He was Kaiza, the 'Hero of Wave'."

Haku nearly broke out in a sweat. She knew that Gato had had the man killed to make an example of him, to snuff out any hopes of anyone willing to cross him. While she wasn't present at the execution, she knew of it by word-of-mouth.

"I heard that some guy named Gato killed him. He chopped off his arms, making my tou-san die from loss of blood." He began growling again in the back of his throat.

"I-"

"So help me Kami, when I find him, I'm going to draw his death out for **days**. Then I am going to raze all who he is, what he does and where he lives to the ground."

Yuki was badly startled. She could have sworn that his voice sounded demonically-influenced or something, right as he said the word 'days'. His eyes also became distinctly catlike, but was red with a slit pupil. But as quickly as it came, it left and what he said caught up to her.

'He speaks that as if he knows he's capable. But… wouldn't that mean I would get caught up in his quest for revenge?' "I don't think that revenge is a healthy solution." She mumbled.

"Why not?! It would make me feel a hell of a lot better, I bet."

Haku was sure that he already knew who Gato was. If not, then it would be only a matter of time. He came here yesterday, after all. Perhaps by midday tomorrow he would perhaps be burning down Gato supposed fortress to the ground, along with mounting the business man's head on a pike if he were to have his way.

And if Naruto believed himself capable, as she had reasoned him to be the instigator of the fire technique, then what was his team capable of?

She could take a chance. Try and kill Naruto now, with nothing more than her repertoire of Hyoton and Suiton techniques, versus a boy whose fire jutsu eclipsed it. When she had the element of surprise, but not knowing what else he could do. Strength perhaps? Look at what had happened to the fallen tree. What could he do to her? Snap her like a brittle twig?

She made her choice.

"Well, in any case, it was a pleasure to speak with you, Naruto-san. My parents are probably worried for me."

He grumbled something incomprehensible.

"I beg your pardon?"

"That's fine."

"Oh. Well, you're fine now, I hope?"

"Nah. I'm still grievin'."

'He's still upset. I better leave while I still have a decent cover.' "Alright."

She stood up and started to leave, heading in the direction he had seen her emerge from in the first place. 'Hmm.' "Take care. Hope you don't run into any perverts or something."

She turned back momentarily. "I hope so too." She begun maneuvering her way around the mud and loose stones she figured a civilian girl would and soon, the darkness of the forest hid her from his view.

Naruto stared after her for as long as he could see her retreating form, and strained his hearing to listen for her fading footsteps. Finally, there was neither to be sensed and he resumed staring into the fire. He knew it was dangerous; it would make one blind to the outer darkness, making them easy victims. But 'focus' helped with pupil dilation, and for that he was thankful.

'Come to think of it, she only looked at the fire once or twice. She was always staring at me. Like she was scrutinizing me while avoiding making herself blind to the night. Almost as if she was ninja-trained.'

"Nah. But if she is, she's one pretty kunoichi…" He blushed again thinking of her. Almost half-heartedly, he delved back into his memories of her features.

"Oh Kami. Am I being perverse?" He mumbled.

He looked up to his forehead in thought, weighing all of the facts. "Don't think so. It's not like I'm viewing her naked or something without permission, or thinking of rutting with her. I wonder if what I'm thinking is the same reason why she said that she's a boy. It would be a real turn-off. Tch."

 **=X=X=**

Haku appeared out of a water shunshin just in front of the building where her comrades resided. It was nondescript, practically just four concrete walls with a roof on top. The building was just large enough for four people to sleep and perhaps walk around before bumping into one another. It was given to them by their boss to sleep in during their tenure.

She knocked at the door. There was no code or special way of knocking. There was no need for none when it was a building that was occupied by four hardened killers. Three, in actuality.

Besides, the door was never locked. She only knocked to announce that she was entering.

So she did, pushing in the door and taking her sandals off in the doorway. She noted that Zabuza was sitting on the edge of his bed eating a loaf of bread, watching Gozu and Meizu arm-wrestle each other on a small table. The man with the serrated teeth looked up to her.

"Where've you been all evening?"

"I was trying to scout out the Konoha team that came in with Tazuna, master."

Gozu fought desperately to keep his hand up, but lost as Meizu slammed his hand on the other side of the table that shook with the force. "Damn it!" The losing brother turned to Haku while ignoring his brother's gloating in the background. "Did you find out about that katon technique we saw?"

"The katon jutsu?" Zabuza muttered. "Me and the short bastard was talking in his high rise office when we saw it. The damned prick starts going on and on about it was at Tazuna's house. I swear, I was about to take Kubikiribōchō to him myself just to shut him up. But he's paying us with overseas cash, so we still needed him alive. Not to mention keeping up a reputation as reliable employees who don't murder their so-called 'charitable' bosses. Shit."

Haku nodded, but frowned a bit at his rambling. It was a sign that he was getting impatient with the mission progress. "I believe I found out all the details surrounding the jutsu. Even though it almost all theory, I find it to be as close to the truth as I can trust."

"Well, don't keep us in suspense; tell us!" Gozu exclaimed.

"There was a genin named Naruto-"

"Hah! Fishcake?!"

"Maelstrom." She corrected Meizu. But she had no idea why she said that. It was almost as if she was defending him. "He told me that he preferred that meaning."

"You met the kid?" Zabuza bit out. "I trust that you killed him then? Less opposition, of course."

"No. I didn't. I believe that he was the one who did the technique."

"What?!" "What the hell?!" "How can a brat pull off something like that?"

"Just let me speak. Don't interrupt. He found out that his adopted father died only today. He said it was Kaiza, the 'Hero of Wave' that Gato had his thugs kill in a public execution. When he was at home, he had his privacy invaded by one of his teammates. They then had a fight, during which Naruto used the fire technique, probably as intimidation at his former friend. Then he left the house to get some alone time to grieve and gather his thoughts."

"There's a lot of holes in the story."

"I know, Zabuza-sama." She went on to explain in depth how she figured it out and soon the man had caught up to speed, not to mention impressed.

"While it's mostly theory, it is fair to say there's a seventy-thirty chance that he was the one who did the jutsu. Even if anyone were to pull that off, they'd die of chakra exhaustion." Momochi reasoned.

"True. And there was this one thing about him. While he was threatening what he'd do to Gato, I could have sworn that I saw his eyes look like red through and through, with a slit pupil. Not to mention that for that same moment, his voice sounded a bit…" She gazed at her companions, noting their backgrounds and monikers. "…Demonic."

"Demonic you say? Like deeper, maybe sounding influenced? Undertone?"

"Hai! Like that! But how did you know, master?"

"I met someone like that. Eyes didn't really look that way but the personality fits, along with the emotion. This boy must be like Yagura-teme. A jinchuriki." Zabuza answered.

"What's that?" Gozu asked.

"'Power of Human Sacrifice.' Demon containers and all that shit. What did he look like?"

"He was wearing-" Haku began, but was cut off by her teacher.

"Not clothes. Anybody can change that. I mean like hair, face, scars, things like that."

"He had spiky blond hair, blue eyes, looked to be around thirteen or fourteen years old…and he seemed to have these whisker-like marks on his cheeks. Three on each cheek. They looked so uniform I thought them to be tattoos, maybe intentional scarring."

"That must be some kind of indicator what demon he carries. The only demon I can associate with Konoha is the Kyuubi. The attack on the village fits the timeline too."

They all continued their discussion well into the night, trying to figure out their next move, a plan, a strategy. But nothing seemed suitable. All they could imagine was the boy and his team coming to kill Gato and they were all burnt to death.

"Kami. I got no clue what to do. Kill 'em in their sleep?" Gozu muttered.

"We'd be detected before we got inside. It's an old house, creaking boards, not to mention they could be sleeping in shifts."

"What about the brat in the woods. He's the one that complicates things. What if we all storm him at the same time?"

"Probably back with his team at the house. No way is he gonna sleep on the hard ground when he's got a warm bed waiting for him."

"Then what the hell are we supposed to do?"

"I don't have all the fucking answers, now do I?"

Haku listened to the three men banter, with none coming closer to a sound idea. It was then she decided that enough was enough.

"We'll just ask Gato how we can kill Tazuna, or dispose of the team. Maybe he can come up with an idea we can use, because none of ours are good enough to even go on paper."

She truly detested killing, but speaking like that helped to give her a dominating vibe, in which all of them listened. While it did end the discussion, it was not in a way that she imagined,, even though she should have.

Zabuza grabbed his sword to go train in the middle of the night, Gozu went out to drink while Meizu insisted on getting something to eat. At her insistence, the man agreed to bring something for her to eat as well; she was famished.

 **=X=X=**

Morning found Naruto trudging back to his house. He hadn't slept any, but he was still possessed perfect clarity. He had spent long enough from home, but he didn't know if he yearned for it, if he yearned for the seeming safety it promised. A place to get some food to eat, a place to rest his head.

And then there was what happened yesterday.

He chose at that moment, to just get in, get to bed, wake up at dinnertime, eat then, then continue to do his job of protecting his grandfather on his C ranked mission in Wave.

"Without a word. Damn it all. I should have just taken the mission to Taki and get to see Fu-chan again." He mumbled. He resolved then and there not to say a thing until they just realized that the problem was not going to disappear, that he wasn't crazy, that he wasn't a would-be murderer, he was just another human being. One that had a lot of shit on his plate to sort through.

He walked straight to the front door, let himself in and went upstairs to the room he figured he would sleep. All of them saw or heard of his entrance but no one said or asked him a thing. It was in fact hilarious; it seemed that they had decided on the exact same thing.

He created a shadow clone and watched it remove its baton from the back-holster. Swiping it to release the catch. 'Watch over me.'

The clone nodded and took a seat that could watch the window, the door and his creator at all times while Naruto changed into a t-shirt and boxers. Retrieving his sleeping bag, he unfurled it and got inside before laying his head down to sleep. But even in his dreams, he still had no peace.

 **=X=X=**

"That's interesting to know. Knowing you, you probably do everything with your sword, you must want me to come up with a way to kill the pest in an original way."

Gato got up from his luxurious chair and paced to his window. Looking out, he was treated to the sight of a lightening flash that lit up the sky. Around five to six seconds later, a booming thunder was heard and rain began to fall heavily.

Zabuza frowned, trying to think of a way to dance around the issue while still getting what he wanted. Unfortunately, he was going to have to suck up to the man even more. "Just a way to put more control in your hands. You order me to kill him, I let you pick how you want me to off him."

The short business man smirked at the sound of that. "I like your point. He hasn't gone to his bridge even now. I suspect he's hiding out in his house. Burn it down with him inside."

Zabuza nearly kicked his own ass as the man mentioned that. _Now there was an idea._ But-

"The rain's falling. Never mind. I have a better one. One that will let those insufferable mongrels down there who's really in control. Don't let anyone get out of that house alive. If they try to leave, kill them. That'll make 'em starve to death in the house, or try to end their misery by throwing themselves to you." Gato reasoned. "Starve to death, or try to duke it out with a legendary swordsman of the Mist. In a fortnight, they'll all be dead from starvation and dehydration, and the house will be their tomb."

Zabuza chuckled. It seemed that the damned midget actually had a good head atop his shoulders. This was the best plan. If all else failed and the jinchuriki had amazing vitality, he'd just burn the house down. It couldn't keep raining forever in any case. Besides, he would operate at his best out of doors; the sword wasn't exactly indoor-friendly but that plan…plans that Gato thought up had the biggest chance of success. Zabuza himself now appreciated well thought out strategy and information. If he had had it from the start, Yagura could have been dead already. But now he had learned from his mistakes, and the Konoha team and the Master Bridge-Builder would die.

And he had some ideas to assure his success.

 **=X=X=**

Hinata cleaned the final one and placed the plate in the dish-rack. Wiping over the counter twice in conclusion, she stepped back to admire the now clean kitchen. She didn't help the branch family members with their work and chores as often as she would have liked to but out on this mission made her feel more useful, even if it was just a chore. Nevertheless, she would soon have to leave the house to protect the client while he built his bridge.

About said client…

'Strange family. It's like they already knew Naruto, the way they carried on about Naruto. What is it that they know that we don't?'

She could have just easily asked the Uzumaki, but he was upstairs sleeping. If that was the only issue, then she would have just waited for him to wake up, perhaps ask a question or two. He had never hidden anything from her (not that she knew of) and had always been frank or truthful with her. She had to know.

If anything, Naruto's reaction over Kaiza had to be proof that they all knew one another.

She walked into the living room to find Inari quietly speaking to his mother while Shino sat close by. She reasoned that their sensei was upstairs with Tazuna, watching over him.

"Hey Shino, has Naruto woken yet?"

The Aburame looked to her and the mother and son duo stopped conversing to listen. "I don't know, Hinata. And I have no intention of trying to find out."

"Why is that?"

"…" The kikaichu user shifted his gaze. Hinata considered for a moment before pressing on.

"Is this the same reason why Naruto was upset with you yesterday?"

"Leave it alone, Hinata. I nearly got burnt to death; you saw what happened to the tree."

"I'm not defending his actions!" Hinata exclaimed. "While I think it was heavy handed, I don't know any details surrounding why he did it. That's why I'm asking you. You always seem to know about things like this."

Shino let out a long sighing exhale. "And that was the problem. I tried to know about one thing too many, and I nearly paid the cost with my life."

"Curiosity nearly killed you?" Tsunami stated. "That's a bit ironic. Reminds me of the proverb about the cat."

"Curiosity?"

"Hai, Inari. I wanted to find out why Naruto was upset and why the whole household seemed to be on edge. I had realized that it could be detrimental to the mission's success."

Hinata had a look of realization on her face when she recalled Naruto's reaction to Kaiza's fate. But she stayed it, thinking about what her teammate just said. "You spied on him, didn't you?"

There was a long pause.

"…I did."

"So he tried to kill you because of it?!" Inari couldn't believe it.

"Every time I think about it, the trajectory of the fire jutsu was meant to kill the insect that I had planted on him-"

"You breached his privacy?" Hinata felt her face begin to redden with anger.

"For lack of a better term, yes. But it was well intentioned, I assure you. But as I said, the jutsu was meant to kill the insect, but the effect of the jutsu was broadened and I would have gotten caught in it also, if I had not done a replacement technique." Shino defended himself as his gaze changed to each of the three people, scrutinizing emotions.

"I think I should just ask Naruto-kun for his side of the story." Hinata decided after a moment's thought.

"You know that Kurenai-sensei asked that no one speak to Naruto. You also know this is being done in the hopes that he will realize his guilt and apologize."

"I suppose that he should apologize for nearly killing your friend, Hinata." Tsunami argued. "But Shino should also say he is sorry. I have reason to believe that Naruto is going through a difficult time and it's possible he got fed up when he thought that his life was being pried into."

"…" Shino looked up to the ceiling. Above it, he believed Naruto would be. "And why should I break my teacher's rule?"

No one had an answer except for Hinata.

"Shino, let me tell you a story about Kimyō Town…"

 **Fifteen minutes later, Shino was** found going up the steps with Hinata to the bedroom where Naruto was located. Both were lost in thought, yet completely stable mentally as they opened the bedroom door where they all slept.

Shino was the first to step in, and was also the first to find himself on the floor with his left hand behind his back, and a baton wedged in the opening. As the baton turned like a four-way wheel brace on his wrist and shoulder, Shino could barely contain his groans of pain while it felt like his arm was being forced out of the shoulder socket.

"Naruto-kun! What are you doing?!" Hinata hissed in alarm.

"I'm not Naruto. I'm just a welcome mat for people like him." The doppelganger gestured to the sleeping Naruto on his futon, then to Shino as his statement applied.

"Urrrgh…"

"Just let him speak to Naruto-kun. Please!"

"No." The shadow clone stopped just short of removing the boys arm from its joint and yanked him up back unto his feet by the back of his neck. "You're lucky I'm gracious enough to let you go free, you prick. Now go."

Shino fumbled his sick arm with his healthy one and pushed against it, just to make sure the joint was still secure. He couldn't believe he had gotten manhandled so easily by Naruto; a clone even, not to mention was highly expendable, and easily destroyed.

He made as if to leave but Hinata grabbed Shino by his healthy shoulder to prevent his exodus. "We're staying. Now let us speak to…your boss." The Hyuuga heiress insisted. She had experienced seeing him using shadow clones and the one thing that she had noticed was that they tended to call him so. Hence her use of the term now.

"…" The clone crossed his arms while still holding his baton in a forward grip, glaring daggers. "And pray tell why I should?"

"Shino came to apologize."

"Did he want to of his own volition, or was he pressured to? Advised to?"

Shino had no argument; he squirmed his way from Hinata's grasp and left, still clutching his shoulder in pain. The clone shut the door behind the boy before turning to Hinata, his eyes softening a little. "And what business do you have?"

"Why are you so short-tempered?"

"I have my creator's emotions. He still resents Shino…and the fact that you have yet to be assaulted is also proof. Now please leave." He gestured to the door with his head.

'So Naruto cares enough about me to not have me beaten with a night-stick?' "I guess I'll just take a nap then. My sleeping bag's next to Naruto's."

"…" The kage bunshin growled a bit before relenting. "I suppose I can't stop you from doing that. Go ahead."

The girl promptly readied her bag and got in; she was already in casual clothing. "Please wake me up when he wakes up?"

The clone looked away, trying to ignore her.

"Please?"

"Fine. But you should know that he doesn't want to speak to anyone." The clone bit out. He got back to his seat and went back to surveying the room like a watchdog. Hinata didn't really feel the need to sleep, as it was only early in the afternoon. She was actually waiting for Naruto to wake up but the dull drone of the rainfall finally lulled her to take a nap.

 **=X=X=**

It felt like only minutes since she had fallen asleep when she felt like she was being shaken. Lavender eyes opened as she was roused awake, only to find the clone shaking her by the shoulder to get her to wake up.

"Hey. Get up."

The clone then dispersed into a plume of white smoke. She looked around only to find Naruto waking up as well and rubbing his eyes. He groaned before getting up, and fixed her with a dead-on stare.

Silence.

…

…

…

"Um. Kon-nichi wa, Naruto."

"…"

"I came to talk about what happened yesterday." 'That's right. The clone warned that he didn't want to talk to anyone.'

"…" He raised his eyebrow.

Finally seeing even a minute change in his facial appearance, she pressed on eagerly. "Shino came to apologize today, but your clone beat him up."

He nodded in response.

She realized that he wasn't going to talk about anything pertaining to what happened yesterday. With a sigh, she changed the subject. "Do you want something to eat? Tsunami-san left you something from breakfast."

"Sure."

They both got out of their sleeping bags and went downstairs to the kitchen. They ignored the stares along the way and once there, Hinata took out a covered dish from a makeshift safe on a corner table. Naruto, had in fact known that leftover meals were kept there, but he let her get it for him. He sensed that she was trying to wheedle him for info but so long as she stayed away from the subject, he'd stay vocal.

He ate in silence, trying to shake the feeling of her watching him. It was unsettling to say the least but somehow, he sensed that there was some other feeling. The same sense of foreboding he had gotten back in the Leaf when he had encountered his grandfather had returned and it was far more potent now than before.

He quickly ate before turning to her. "Do you feel…different?"

She appeared befuddled. "What? I don't understand-"

"Like a sixth sense. Like something bad is going to happen."

"Um... like premonition?" She asked in uncertainty.

He nodded. "Like it, but it's more general. Something's going on, or about to happen." He worried a moment, trying to gather his wits. In a way, the feeling felt a bit like his 'Reflex' keenness, but still completely different. Almost as if it was a warning, but his body didn't know how to react. "Is everyone here?"

"Hai."

"Well…that's good, I guess."

A loud knock came at the front door. Three, rapid and consecutive.

Naruto quickly exchanged a look with Hinata, before the Uzumaki got up and went into the living room. There he could see Tsunami making as if to go to the door, Inari sitting on the floor and Shino nursing his arm.

The blond quickly grabbed his mother away from opening the door. She turned to him as if to argue but Naruto glared at her, while shaking his head. He ushered her back to her seat while he created a clone who then henged to look like her.

"Who is it?" The clone called in her voice.

The two civilians goggled at the sight and listened for the answer. The person on the other side of the door muttered something that the house occupants didn't quite catch. While the clone called again, Naruto quickly went back into the kitchen, retrieved a knife and went back to the door, crouching in a supposed blind spot should the person outside force entry.

"Hello?" The clone called.

"Just open the door." The voice growled.

Naruto nodded to the clone, who in which the 'woman' nodded back. Shino and Hinata in separate places in the living room readied themselves for a fight possibility as the clone opened the door forcefully and quickly.

Through the clones eyes and everyone else's (but Naruto), they took in the sight of what seemed to be a six foot tall man with a sword that seemed to be twice that length on his back, wearing bandages and baggy Mist camo pants. His companions to his sides and just behind him but still in good view were dressed in leather outfits and sporting metal gauntlets, and the last person seemed to be dressed like a mist hunter Nin, mask and all.

"While it's wise to greet me in a henge," Zabuza applauded. "It's still unwise to open a door to someone who still hadn't introduced themselves, brat."

"…"

"My name's Zabuza Momochi, and I've come to inform you that you are all under house arrest." Zabuza chuckled with a sinister-sounding undertone as he continued. "All who tries to leave this house will die." He pointed to the two roughly dressed men. "Poisons, dismemberment." He then pointed to the hunter-nin. "Piercings to all of your vitals all at once." He then gestured to himself with his free hand and at the same time, bandages from around his face sagged a bit, revealing a shark-esque grin which frightened all of the first time beholders. "Or straight up butchering from yours truly."

A foggy and an extraordinarily deep cover mist came from behind the quad group of ninja outside. On impulse, Shino started to release insects from his person and Hinata activated her byakugan. To her surprise, her dojutsu seemed to make everything look like a chakra haze. All too soon, the mist concealed the ninja, but it stopped at the door in an amazing display of control.

"Your first day in you living in your own grave, begins…now."

A hand reached in from outside and pulled the door closed with a resounding 'bang' of finality. All of the house's occupants released a breath that they hadn't realized that they had been holding. The clone dispersed relinquishing its memories to Naruto, who frowned heavily.

"Is he serious?!" Tsunami nearly hollered.

"I should think so."

"Enough of your dry humor, you prick." Naruto got up and replaced the knife back in the kitchen and returned. "We've got enough problems. Where's sensei?"

"Right here."

All eyes turned to the stairs to see Kurenai with Tazuna trailing closely behind. "I was upstairs guarding Tazuna when I overheard. I listened here while readying myself for a fight."

Naruto grumbled. He supposed that made sense; the client came first and if a fight ensued, it wouldn't do for all of them to be visible and ready to intercept at the same time. "So you know him? All I know is his title. A book had him in passing mention."

"Hai. He's Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Hidden Mist and master of the Silent Killing." Kurenai stated. "No doubt he's targeting us, but whom specifically? Is it us? Me? The family?"

"Tazuna-san?" Shino added.

"And then there's him. This is a C rank mission to protect him from thieves, common crooks and bandits."

All eyes turned to the bridge builder, catching him in the action of trying to discretely go back up the stairs. Without hesitation, Yuhi grasped the man by his shirt collar and pulled him back, before walking him to a chair and forcing him down to sit in it.

"Tazuna-san? What's this all about?"

"Oh…uh…"

"Tou-san? What did you tell these ninja in the Leaf?" Tsunami's blood pressure was rising to dangerous new heights in direct proportions to her worry. "Didn't you tell them about Gato?"

Naruto's ears perked up at the mention of the name, and started glaring at his adoptive grandfather.

Hinata spoke up. "He told us about Gato when he was telling us why the picture was missing a person."

"All he said was that a business man had his guards kill him. Nothing else." Shino explained while pushing up his shades. "We need more specifics."

"Shouldn't we be focused on people outside keeping us trapped in our own home, threatening to murder us if we try to leave?" Tsunami argued.

"We need to know, Tazuna!" Kurenai yelled. "What aren't you telling us?!"

"I…" The man looked to both of his grandsons. One looked as if he wanted to cry while the other looked mad enough to eat concrete. "Gato is the business man controlling Wave. As far as I can tell, he's a control maniac; wants to show us that he's got us in the palm of his hand, and everyday, he clenches his fist a little tighter."

"Get to the point!"

"The bridge I'm building will help break his monopoly on all the trades that rely on his shipping. That's why he wants to kill me."

The red-eyed woman sighed before plopping herself down in the sofa next to Shino. "Shit. A C-rank mission which was an A-rank the whole time. _Again._ "

All of team eight knew what she was talking about and didn't speak. In the ensuing silence, Tazuna started to get nervous and continued rambling in an effort to quell the feeling as well as the tension.

"This Gato was…is a real bastard. If he weren't so terrible, I might not have tried to build the bridge, but I made up my mind soon after her started having his people burn down people's homes, ransacking them for valuables, saying that people 'owed' him for taxes, trafficking our women and murdering good people."

"So this Gato murdered Tou-san?"

All eyes turned to Naruto. But only one answered him.

"Hai, my son. He killed Kaiza-kun." Tsunami started to cry in tandem with Inari.

Kurenai, Hinata and Shino all stared at Naruto, who hung his head and went upstairs. Ignoring the eyes that seemed to bore into his back, he soon left their view and he went to his room to change back into his gear and proper clothing.

The eyes snapped back to the family, some questions now answered but now, many more formed now required them. But not one a single one was answered, for none spoke to reply.

Naruto soon came back down the stairs, all of them turned to look back at him but his hood was up and over his head; no one knew what emotion his face was registering. "So this Gato's still here in Wave, I take it?"

"He is." Tazuna answered.

"Where can I find him?"

"Naruto-kun, are you serious? The ninja outside will tear you to pieces!"

'Now there's a thought. Ugh. I can't keep discriminating him like this.' "She's right, Naruto. He didn't get to his rank by just using a sword. As far as I know, the only person he ever lost to was Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage. And he was a Jinchuriki, one with perfect control over his Demon."

"A Demon? He's only second to a person or thing like that?" Tsunami enquired. "But come to think of it, what's a jinchuriki?"

Following an explanation, all were caught up to speed and they all came to grips that the person outside was very strong nukenin, not to mention he had help.

Naruto was slightly unsettled; it seemed almost as if the woman was poisoning his family with facts about jinchuurikis. He hadn't meant to tell them, but the fact still remained that his family was clearly against the practice and the use.

"Well, in any case, I doubt Gato will be expecting me to come for him while I'm here."

All of the heads turned to the blond again as he opened the door and noted the haze that seemed to be like a solid wall at the door. "What are you doing, Naruto! Shut the door!" Kurenai hissed while removing a kunai.

"I dunno. To go kill someone, maybe?" Naruto replied sarcastically. After a moment's hesitation, he silently readied himself for a kawarimi, and stepped out.

Two seconds later, he was back in the house with wide eyes, and two pieces of a large log (what's left of it) fell in through the doorway, riddled with claw marks that had a little purple liquid in the gouges, and covered senbon like a pincushion. The boy hurriedly pushed the log out with his foot and yelled into the mist.

"Don't you think that's a bit overkill?"

The sound of Zabuza chuckling again sent shivers running down everyone's back, and Naruto slammed the door closed.

"Well, to hell with that shit."

He looked around at the others who stared/glared at him. "I'm guessing we're sleeping in shifts, huh?"

 **=X=X=**

Twenty-four hours passed with no outside contact.

As he had asked, the four ninja slept in shifts- each slept for six hours, watching the house in pairs. Naruto and Kurenai watched the house interior and kept their vigil as the others slept and the family tried to find some way to pass the time.

"Kuso. It's like you're a magnet for trouble, Naruto."

Naruto looked up from where he was seated next to Tsunami. "How so?"

"First those bastards, and now this. What's this about these your family members? They're in Wave, and you've never left the village besides these two C rank missions turned A ranked."

"Hmph. It sounds like you missed one."

"What's that?"

"I know you still resent me for what happened to your father. 'Nine' already apologized."

"To hell with that!" Kurenai yelled. "Like I'm supposed to believe that! Do I look like an idiot?!"

"On occasion." Came the dry reply.

"Why I ought to-"

"Please! Stop arguing! It's not improving the dilemma!"

"Kaa-chan, its fine."

Kurenai growled a bit in frustration. She recalled in her mind how she had resolved not to run away from anymore adversities and the irony of which she was trapped in one place. She needed _help._

"It's just attrition."

"What does that mean, nii-san?" Inari questioned.

"Do you want the word-for-word definition? Or do you want me to tone it down for you?" Naruto grinned at the last.

"Heh. I get it. 'Memory' huh?" Inari grinned as well.

Naruto's grin lessened slightly. "Yeah, yeah. Hush. Here it is. It's the act or process in which one wears down the adversary by means of constant attacks or continued pressure."

"As usual, I understood nothing."

"Huh? Don't you still go to school? I spoke it at your supposed level." Naruto stated, his confusion increasing.

"Gato burned the school down." Tsunami answered. "But I get it. It's just someone doing something to make sure they outlast the enemy. Right?"

"Yeah. You're still as smart as ever, mom."

"Alright, this is bugging the crap outta me. How are you all family? I know that's he's an orphan. How did you meet?"

They all looked to each other briefly, before Naruto answered. "It's my story to tell, one I refuse to tell you."

He got up, and left them to got upstairs to find Tazuna in his doorway, still drinking. "You shouldn't be drinking. It's a diuretic."

"What the hell's that?" The middle aged man slurred.

"It makes ya piss more." Naruto stated straightforward. "And you'll drink more, waste more. Get it?"

"Can't you just lemme die drunk? It should be easier than when I'm sober."

Naruto sighed. He could feel himself going out of his mind if he stayed cooped up for too much longer.

 **It had been three days** since their lockdown in their own home. The family's hope flagged while the ninja still debated what to do.

"What do we do, Shino?"

"Why are you asking Shino, Hinata-chan?"

The Hyuuga fidgeted. "He always has some good ideas."

Naruto scoffed from his corner. " _Always_?"

Shino sighed. His face sagged a bit and for the first time, his face showed emotion. He looked honestly repentant. "Naruto, I'm very sorry for invading your privacy. Gomenasai. I had no idea that you were going through a grievous phase and it was wrong of me to pry."

"…"

"Can you forgive me?"

Naruto looked away, before looking back to him. "Yeah. Sorry for nearly killing you and nearly breaking your arm, I guess."

"When did that happen?" Kurenai asked, indignant.

"Doesn't matter." Shino replied. "Anyway, I'm at a loss. I've tried to send kikaichu out to the Leaf to contact my clan and send help, but the buzzing of their wings gives them away and they're killed. Not to mention they're bloated in the mist. It's made with pure chakra-"

"So Hinata well and truly **can not** see through it?"

"That's right, sensei. Even if I send my insects out in the rain in the hopes that it will muffle the sound of their wings, the wings get wet and they can't fly. Sooner or later, they drop to the ground and drown in rain water."

"So…" Naruto began. "How much longer can we last?"

"We're each down to one ration bar, and the family has about one meal left for their own. No more rain has fallen since yesterday, so the hole we made in the roof to collect water through is only letting in the wind at this point. All in all, one more day, then we'll all degenerate."

"Just to be clear, how do you know the fate of your insects?"

Shino turned to the Uzumaki. "There's a reason why we Aburame listen more than we speak. Our ears have to be sensitive enough to listen to the kikaichus' language of wings flapping, legs shaking and buzzing. And of late, it almost feels like I hear their screams when I send them out. I cannot doom them anymore."

There was a minute of silence.

"That sounds a bit dark. So sensei…"

"Hmm?"

"I guess that means we have to act tomorrow, or we'll soon be too weak for attempts after that."

 **=X=X=**

"Alright. We all know what to do, then?"

"Hai." Kurenai whispered back.

"Hinata-chan."

"Hai, Naruto-kun?"

"Please take care of my family."

"I will."

"Shino?"

"Hai, Naruto?"

"If you make it out of this alive, stop being an intrusive bastard. If I make it out of this alive, I'll stop antagonizing you about being an intrusive bastard."

Shino did not answer.

"Go!" Kurenai shouted.

Hinata backtracked into the house and stood in front of the family in her standard jyuuken stance while Shino grasped the door and pulled it open savagely. Kurenai readied her camo genjutsu and cast it on herself while Naruto formed the cross handseal.

" **Tajuu Kage bunshin no jutsu**!"

Clones started poofing into existence in the living room and as fast as they appeared, they ran out while pulling out batons and tantos. Kurenai dashed out as well in the confusion and Naruto did as well, yelling as he did.

"Go, GO, **GO**!"

"Let's go, Shino." Hinata said to the Aburame.

Shino nodded and joined her at her side. They took their places at the fore of the family and lead them to the back door. Upon opening, they tread silently outside. They hadn't even walked five feet from the house Shino actually **bumped** into someone.

"Shit." He started releasing insects that stormed whoever was in front of him, but they dispersed into water, dousing the kikaichu in the liquid which incapacitated their flying capability.

"Hah!" A voice rang out. "Zabuza said it'd work on 'im! Kill 'em all, Meizu!"

"Get out of here!" The Hyuuga yelled to the family behind her. She had no idea what was coming, but she realized that it would be a foolish mistake to remain still. She leapt to one side and barely dodged…something… and heard a man swear colorfully. Absentmindedly, she listened to the pitter-patter and thudding sounds of the family's footsteps as they left. She also heard a roaring shout coming from the front of the house and recognized it to be Naruto's. Shaking her head, she took out a kunai from her pouch and threw it to where she heard the cursing coming from and was disappointed to hear it ricochet off some kind of metal before planting itself in the earth.

A second later, she deactivated her byakugan as it was getting her nowhere, as well as using up chakra. She listened for any telltale sounds of anyone who was a threat and nearly Gentle Fisted Shino when he backpedaled into her. He collapsed into her arms and coughed; a truly harrowing sound.

"Shino!"

"Scratch one brat ninja!" A voice laughed somewhere in the fog.

She felt someone deeply inhale her hair. "Can we keep this one, Gozu?!"

"You sick pedo! Kill the girl, you idiot! I'm trying to find the bastard bridge builder!" The first voice yelled back. "Damn it! Where the hell did so many people come from?!"

Hinata looked around in a sense of panic and disgust and could barely tell the outline of a man that stood behind her. On impulse, she held Shino in one arm and lunged forward in the short distance between her and the man. It failed to touch him as he backpedaled.

"It's *hah, hah, ha!* damn hilarious. She thinks she can take me on!"

The form lifted what looked like a massive arm and started to drop it in an axe handle attack. Flinching momentarily, she jumped backwards and cursed in her mind. She couldn't fight with the byakugan, she couldn't see the enemy, Shino, for all she knew was mortally wounded, held in her arm and hampering her even further. She was seriously considering going back into the house with Shino but the man was in the way of that.

"Die!"

"Graaah!" Another figure seemingly tackled the ninja in the stomach with a head-butt. "Everyone get back in the house!"

"Tazuna-san?!"

"Get inside!"

Feet ran and slipped in the mist, thundered and flashed into the house to return through the back door. Hinata started pulling Shino past where the two men were scuffling it out on the ground.

"Just go!"

She ran to the direction where she felt where the door was, fighting to maintain a hold on Shino. She ran headlong into the wall; hurting herself but she realized that it was a good thing. Strafing along the wall, she found the open door and hurled herself and Shino through it.

"Where's Tazuna-san?"

"I don't know!" Inari yelled back.

Her eyes snapped back to the mother and son and gasped as she saw them cut and bloodied in many places. "What happ-?"

"Save Oji-san! Please!"

Said grandfather stumbled into the room and slammed the door behind him. He, like his daughter and grandson was covered in cuts and his forehead was bleeding heavily down the side.

"I don't need savin' brat. Ugh! That bastard tried to knock me out with some kind of iron on his hand!" He bit out, before groaning loudly in pain. He walked shakily past the others further into the kitchen and slumped on the ground with his back on the counter.

"Where's Naruto-chan? And Kurenai?" Tsunami asked, extremely worried.

" **Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu**!" A voice yelled outside. (Gokakyu is the flamethrower. The Gokakyuu is the large projectile fireball. Forgive the note, though, I wanted to be specific.)

"FUUCCCK! Haku, get outta there!"

"They're still fighting!" Inari said in wonder.

"Naruto-chan! Come back inside!" Tsunami screamed. Hinata, the upset woman and Inari ran to the living room and saw the outside mist take on a bright yellow colour.

"God-DAMNIT! Are you dead yet, you bastards?!" Naruto yelled as the light faded.

"Naruto! Get in the house!" Kurenai hollered. No sooner had she spoken there was a tumble in the room before the woman came back into view. The woman grasped the door and yelled again. "HURRY!"

"Damn it! I'm coming! Just don't close it! **Kage Bunshin Daibakuha!** " (Shadow Clone Great Explosion)

A half second later, Zabuza screamed for the person named Haku to run, before his footsteps indicated his running as well. Another half second, Naruto dashed into the room, wrenched the Kurenai's grasp of the door and slammed it closed.

A millisecond later, through the cracks of the house doors, wall and windows, one could see a flash of white light and a thunderous explosion. Naruto laughed in relief. "Aw, fuck me! I'm **alive**!"

"Naruto! Language!" Tsunami stalked over to him and walloped him in the head. "Now apologize!

"Damn it, Kaa-chan! Now's not the time-"

"Say it!"

"I'm sorry! Now can we just get a head count, maybe someone would explain why everyone's still here…where's Shino?"

Hinata gasped and ran back into the kitchen with Kurenai and Naruto hot at her heels. In the kitchen, they found Tazuna slumped against the counter, fighting for consciousness while Shino lay face down on the floor.

Naruto quickly turned him over to reveal him with blood seeping from his side. A puddle was starting to form beneath him. Kurenai pushed the blond out of the way and cut open the boy's shirt with a kunai. She worried over him a moment before she sighed.

"He's only unconscious. It's not a vital spot. It's-"

"A flesh wound." Naruto sighed in relief as well. "He must've passed out from shock and blood loss." Quickly creating a shadow clone with low reserves, the clone started looking over Shino before using a **Mystical Palm** technique in an effort to close the wound. In a minute, it was sealed and the clone dispelled, much to the amazement of Tsunami, Inari and Tazuna who still struggled to keep his eyes open.

"Hey brat. Would you mind using some of that voodoo on me?"

Naruto sighed. "Only you, Oji-san. Hinata, can you please patch him up while I take care of Kaa-chan and otouto?"

"Of course, Naruto-kun."

"What the…Hinata knows-…For the love of Kami, I want some answers!" Kurenai demanded.

"Maybe in an hour." Naruto replied. "When we're all done healing."

 **=X=X=**

"…And that's how she knows the **Shosen.** "

"So you taught her that while you were suspended?"

"Uh huh."

"And where did **you** learn it?"

"I read a book. So how did you all get cuts all over you Inari? Oji-san? Kaa-chan?"

"Well, we started running away like Hinata told us." Inari explained. "We didn't get too far when we all tangled in a barb and razor fence."

"A fence? They put up a fence?" Hinata asked. She turned back to her efforts over Tazuna but his head wound was stubborn. "How come?"

"They must've done it to make sure that if everyone ran at once, they'd still cage us in." Tsunami answered.

"We still tried to go through, but the lengths were really close. It was as if trying to go through a full on wall, but one that cuts you to pieces." Inari continued sadly. "We can't escape."

Kurenai sighed in defeat. "I'm all out of ideas. And tomorrow is the start of all of us dying slowly of starvation and thirst."

"I'm at a loss as well." Shino answered. He had woken up fifteen minutes prior to their discussion and did nothing but listen; he was taking it easy.

They were all silent until Hinata's **Shosen** flickered out. "I'm all out of chakra, and I can't mend the damage properly, Naruto-kun. Maybe you should do it." She stated in despondence.

"You did great, Hinata-chan." He walked over and looked over his unconscious grandfather's head. "Your control is better than mine, and I have to handicap a clone in order to do it." He quickly created another shadow clone and watched him work. "In any case, we're all sitting ducks. They can just storm the house and kill us in our sleep, but they're content to let us die on our own. Maybe they're under orders, or something."

"More like a sick joke. And the catch? No one in the Leaf's expecting us for another month." Kurenai frowned, before sighing in defeat. "I'm all out of ideas. And tomorrow is the start of all of us dying slowly of starvation and thirst."

Another moment of silence prevailed before the Shino spoke up. "My kikaichu can't do anything more to expel the poison."

"What poison?!"

"Even though I wasn't fatally injured, my kikaichu have been trying to purge the poison in my body, but they failed to get the last of it. The bulk is gone, but I will soon be incapacitated, and likely dead in forty-eight hours."

"Damn it all! What next!" Kurenai pounded the table in frustration.

"Tazuna's got a concussion. He's out, and I can't really help. He practically has a crack in his skull." The shadow clone stated. "At his age, all I can say is that this has gone from bad to worse."

The family looked worried. "Will he be alright?"

"I can't guarantee it. Boss, we need Doc for this one. For Shino too."

"Doc? Who's that?" Hinata wondered.

Naruto sighed. He had thought about it for days and hoped that he wouldn't need to call his brothers; Higher-ups could figure it out. There was a chance that everything would be shot to hell before it even began, but as Narkaze liked to say-

"Oh well. I guess you gotta mess up early to get it out of the way."

"What are you going to do, Naruto?"

"I'm just going upstairs to meditate, Hinata-chan. Just to meditate. That's all."

 **Well, that's it. It feels rushed but let me tell you this: I felt like I was deleting more than typing this chapter. At first, the 'Haku & Naruto meet' scene felt right, but everything else just…collapsed in on itself. At the very least, you can just call it a half, call chapter 24 a 'one', and you got 1 ½ in one night. That's a win…right?**

 **So for the Wave Arc, we got to see a War of Attrition. I haven't seen anyone else do (or write a fic) on this before, and that counts for Originality, I guess.**

 **As for the tiny fight scene, please don't judge me. I felt really handicapped writing that; I mean, everything was based on just sound and heaps of panic in the moment. And I had scenes from everyone's point of view but they were just useless details, so I threw it out and kept Hinata's, seeing that she should be the most handicapped for being 'blind'. Wave's overdone with Kakashi because of the sharingan and the only person to duke it out with ol' Zabuza is either Kakashi himself, or a super strong Naruto who can fight while he's blind. I also hope I kept everyone in character. But don't let me tell you that. Instead, tell me what you think. All reviews welcome.**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	26. Chapter 26

**Breaking Limits**

 **I'm pissed.**

 **When I'm angry, I angry type. I still don't know if that's a good thing.**

 **Now beginning the chapter on Saturday night. You'll be reading this, exactly one week from now. I best get started.**

 **You should note that there's a scene that you may or may not like, but honestly, I had always intended for it to happen in Wave. It matters here and now, than anywhere else. No spoilers.**

 **Also, I 'did' several things in which I eliminated certain things; things like the need for scene breaks but instead just voiced what was happening elsewhere at the same time by using a bold font and marking them out with asterisks.**

 **Disclaimer: *Sighs deeply*. I don't own Naruto. With that done, its time to go commit arson before I lose what composition I have left.**

 **2 x 13 =…**

As he walked up the stairs, the battle started replaying in his mind. The moment had fled from him and now the present held no distractions for him. The memories of all he ever had was now currently at the front of his mind again. Whether that truly was a curse or a blessing was once again yet to be determined but now, Naruto was sure that he himself did not know.

'I don't know if I prefer to have instant recalling memory, or mass knowledge and experience, or to just have low key memory, little knowledge and experience in low amount.'

"Haku." Naruto muttered.

He made it to the room where they (the ninja) slept in and entered. Without further ado, he created five shadow clones that stood at each of the four corners of the room and one just to his right to guard him.

'Watch over me.' He requested mentally. 'Don't let anyone in this room. **No exceptions**. Clear?'

'Hai.' (x5)

"Alright." The original Uzumaki sighed.

He settled down in a lotus meditating position and formed the bird handseal. Any and all handseals were unnecessary, but his thoughts and memories kept plaguing him.

"Haku." He sighed deeply, recalling the girl he met in the woods.

The clone to his right nodded. "I got your memories too, boss. That Zabuza guy called her name at least two times. She must be that hunter ninja-looking person."

Naruto looked to the clone and sighed. "Think she was trying to wheedle me for information?"

"Uh huh."

"Damn it! She must've been a terrific actor. Either that, or I must be really gullible. I didn't even ask as many questions as the offhanded ones she did that required details."

"Ain't your fault." The clone answered in an effort to console him.

"And what if it is? What if the information she might've got made us look so intimidating that they decided that they can't fight us in a fair fight?"

"When have **you** tried to fight a fair fight?"

Naruto gave a wry grin. "True. Time to call the cavalry."

He allowed focus to take full effect as he closed his eyes, letting it pull him into the mindscape. After what felt like a minute, he reopened his eyes to find himself seated under the tree that was the focal point of said mindscape. Looking around quickly with the aid of peripherals, he saw that the great and massive Kyuubi no Kitsune was sitting on his rear with his 'hands' resting on his 'thighs'. His eyes were closed.

Getting up himself, Naruto then turned fully to look up towards the Fox. He had never seen Kurama like this before. 'Perhaps this is how his presence leaves me to be in my brothers' minds. But how do I get him to wake up? To come back here?'

About a minute of deliberations, he came up with the perfect solution.

" **Suiton: Mizu Kasukēdo**!" (Water release: Water Cascade)

He sent the C ranked jutsu upwards into Kurama's face. Normally, this wouldn't have fazed the demon, but the water fell unto his snout and dripped just inside it, just as he was inhaling through his nose.

*Cough* *Choke* **"Gh! Gah! Wha was zat!"** *Choke*

"Mornin' Kurama!"

" **WHAT! WHAT'RE YOU DOING?!"**

Naruto sweat-dropped. "O…k…Definitely not a morning person."

Kurama ran his forearm over his snout in an effort to get rid of the water. **"Cut the crap. What do you want?"**

The Uzumaki groaned. "I'm in trouble."

" **That's nothing new."**

"My team and my family in Wave are going to die within three days."

The Fox's eyes widened before he laid down flat to have his eyes on the same level as his containers. **"You're joking. Now what** _ **really**_ **happened?"**

"I'm not joking!" Naruto yelled adamantly. "Is the seal in here real time? I need a connection to my brothers. We're too far and I need everyone brought up to speed. Time's wasting! Please?!"

" **Yeah. It's real time right now. Time in here and outside your head is synced. Anyway, gimme a minute. I'm just gonna tell everyone to come here."**

Kurama closed his eyes while the blond waited. After about two or three minutes, he saw his brothers appear in the mindscape like (sudden) blinks and he smiled a little as he saw that they were all in uniform. "Damn we look good."

Narkaze grinned. "Good to see me too."

Naruto smiled as well, before it fell into a frown. "Alright! Everyone, if I may have your attention please! I've got some news. None of it is pleasant…"

 **=X=X=**

"That bug user is as good as dead." Gozu stated matter-of-factly.

Haku barely turned her head to look over to him. "How come?"

Meizu and Gozu continued staring at the house's direction with Zabuza. "Poison. He tried to step backwards from my gauntleted strike but I'm positive that he still got injured from it. There was blood on it."

None could tell Zabuza's emotion from his bandaged face. "Maybe that's for the best. As he slowly dies in front of them, it'll emphasize the futility of all of their actions."

Haku decided to speak up. "But were it not for me listening at the house and overhearing the plan, the family would have at least gotten away. We only had time enough to put up that fence at the south end of the house."

"That's true." The swordsman admitted. "That brat has a good repertoire of jutsu. For Kami's sake, Haku, you nearly got caught in his fucking clone Daibakuha."

"You also yelled my name thrice in total. Now Naruto knows that I'm the one who betrayed him."

Zabuza leveled a stare at his subordinate. "Were you ever on his side?"

"I'm not on Gato's." The girl replied, wisely dodging the question. "This man is…poisoning this land. Couldn't we have found a better job elsewhere?"

"This one's easy." Gozu and Meizu answered simultaneously.

"Is that why we're reduced to just keeping them in their house to let them die of starvation and thirst?"

"Doesn't matter." Momochi growled. "Besides, it's paying for the rebellion. You know that."

"I know." Haku defended. "We could have been more merciful and at the very least give them a quicker death."

"You're talking shit. This is the way of shinobi. To get the job done at any cost, no matter the tactics or weapons of attack. You saw his fire jutsu, and his goddamn exploding clones. Do you think he's going to show mercy to you should he ever get out of that house?"

"N…no."

"Exactly. Meizu, Gozu, go over there and listen to see if they're planning any hair-brained schemes to escape. Haku, since you're still nursing some burns from the brat's fire jutsu, you can go buy some food while patching yourself up at the same time. Hurry back. I'm going to catch a few minutes of sleep."

…

…

…

It had been half an hour since the brothers reported that they were hearing nothing important. They had peered in through certain knot-holes and listened at walls but all they could pick up was the Aburame was going but not yet out, Tazuna was out cold and the last three females holding a vigil over the two unconscious males. They hadn't dared to stand on the rooftop like Haku who was far more proficient at making no noise on all surfaces so they assumed that the jinchuriki was there; they hadn't seen or heard anything of him on the ground floor.

Haku returned with the food and woke up her master upon arriving. She beckoned to all of them and gave each of them their share of the food. The brothers then took to sleep while Zabuza and Haku still watched the house.

Over time since the start, each took turns holding up the mist that surrounded the house. They held it up in pairs and in this way, it was far less chakra intensive. It was actually far less thicker in the nights for in the darker times, it was less necessary. Thicker as in depth; it was still impenetrable to stare through for even a Hyuuga using their Byakugan. It just didn't extend as far from the house. The logic applied to the fact that one couldn't see through a wall, no matter how thick it was. You couldn't see through a one-foot thick wall, in the same way you couldn't stare through one that was thirty feet thick.

It was all about perspective.

"Alright Haku. Your turn to listen at the house."

The ice user nodded before donning her mask, lest her face give away her intentions. Knowing that Zabuza would probably note her activity, she took an hour around the ground floor of the house, before she took to the roof. Zabuza might excel at hearing, but he couldn't hear what the mind thought. That, she alone was privy to.

Treading silently at the roof, she stopped at the hole that the people inside had made. The first day this was made by Naruto, it had created a measure of excitement with her cohorts. In the days following, it had become something for her and Zabuza to exploit. In fact, it had been a topic to argue that they could just let poison through the hole for them to catch, seeing that they would ingest it with the rain water. Luckily, Gato had used his veto power to shut the idea down, saying that he was content to let them die slowly.

She peered in through the hole and was content that no one in the house was there to see what she was doing. The sound would be audible and she was sure she could escape if they came running to investigate.

Deep down, she wasn't sure if she was doing the right thing.

On one hand, it could save a life.

On the other hand, it would prolong a life's suffering.

She silently prayed for a way for all conflict to be resolved with the least casualties. With that done, she unsealed a plastic bag with yet-to-be known contents, and dropped it inside.

 **=X=X=**

"Well…Fuck." Nartai muttered. The taijutsu clone stood up in the mindscape and stretched.

"'Fucked', is more like it." 'Doc' said. "I might be able to do something about the poison, but you need to find out from his symptoms so I can know what kind or rather, type it is. I'm not a miracle worker."

"Well, we sure as hell can't let Konoha in on this. They'll think you were all crazy, then tear you to pieces. Worst case scenario, I get suspended **again** , interrogated, and that's _if_ I live through this mess." Naruto shrugged. "I can only rely on you guys to bail us out."

"But we can die!" Narkaze argued. "We're flesh and blood too! And we won't be able to get back our mentality and consciousness even if you get them. We would be born again, with no idea of who we once were!"

"Risk is always present in the world of Shinobi." The assassination clone said wisely and lowly. "Besides, we with our youki are more resistant to damage. And if our creator dies, its safe to say we perish as well."

"Even so, we can't all go," He continued. "Many of us are abroad in far locations to train while Kurama has been guiding and advising our training in different places. At the most, three of us are needed, and two of us are closest to your location."

Naruto groaned. "Shino's life is on the line…"

"I wouldn't have forgiven him that easily." Narkira muttered. "In any case, who shall, and can be able to go in the required time frame?"

Slowly, the assassination clone himself raised his hand. Over the course of a minute, four more hands joined his in the air. It was that of Narishi, the clone who was the medic. Narshokku, the clone that specialized in Raiton. Narsensa who was obviously the team's pioneer in sensoring, and Narburei who was qualified in interrogation and torture.

Naruto smiled a bit. "Thanks bros."

"Of course." Narburei replied. "When this is all over, I'll have logged some important research information about the intricacies of the delicate art of torture."

"Oh." Naruto grinned/smirked. "Gato."

"Hai."

Kurama who looked on at his container and his clones decided to voice his concerns. **"Well, if and when you get involved, your genin whole team, maybe even your family will catch on to your brothers. While you do not share the same chakra, given the unique mixture of yin and yang, chakra itself and youki, even the Hyuuga might see that it resembles too much. Also, Kurenai might outright figure out that they are your clones by your clothing, voice, and such."**

"Simple. She might realize it, but she'll have no proof. She knows a lot, but nothing that'll hurt me, and nothing I can't deny. But in any case, I'm tired of having to pretend. I'm tired of lying. When this is all over, our enemies shall come to fear the Tenacious THIRTEEN!" Naruto shouted.

"YEAH" (x12)

"We'll don the masks the whole time." Narishi stated. "Perhaps wearing shades over our eyes to hide the iris colour. Using the hood as well, we'll be completely incognito. Maybe using code names."

"Damn. Now I wish I did go." Narkaze muttered. "That'd look cool."

"Too bad." Naruso said with a chuckle. "Anyway, y'all listen up. I got a plan… It involves kicking a lot of ass. That's all I can do, since I can't make it."

" **Now…I'm interested."** Kurama said with a toothy smirk.

...

…

…

"And that's it?"

"It'll work."

"Anyone else have any ideas?" Naruto asked.

There was none that answered him.

"Well. Kick-ass, yes." Naruto admitted. "Incredibly reckless…dangerous…exposing…chances of survival less than double-digits…"

"Uh…yeah! For the ninjas outside!" Naruso said with a determined grin.

The original Uzumaki sighed. "Fine. Now each of you who are coming needs a codename. Pick something slightly obvious but leave out the first syllable. I'm sure you know why."

"You guys can still call me 'Doc'." Narishi admitted. "I've grown fond of it."

"Volt? Blackout? Overcharge?" Narshokku wondered which would be the best option. "Surge, maybe?"

"Surge." Narsensa said quickly. "I guess my name can be 'Farsight'."

There were nods all around. "Now we need one for the troubled one and me." Narkira mused.

"Hey! I'm not troubled! Aw, to hell with it. Call me Psychosis."

"'Believing things that are not true'? What the hell?" Naruto muttered.

"It's _my_ name. Not yours." Narburei bit back. "Narkira, just tell him yours so we can get moving."

"Fate."

"…" (X12)

" **You know what, Narkira? I think you're my new favorite."** The Kyuubi snickered.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Kurama, do I have to come into the seal all the time to talk to the others?"

The Kitsune stopped laughing. **"No. At the distance you are between each other in a group like this, I believe it's necessary. For individual messages, I could relay them; per say, one to another, and another to one."**

"I see. Thanks for meeting everyone."

One by one, he watched all of them leave the mindscape except for Narburei. He walked over to his creator before speaking to him independently.

"I'm the closest to you. Currently, I'm in Konoha."

"WHAT?!"

"Calm down. I'm in a physical disguise. I just stopped by there to go to the library. I also replenished your library clones, thank you very much."

"Oh. Um. That's fine." Naruto admitted. "But why say it to me?"

"I have a lot of time to meet up with the others at the rendezvous for the attack. Don't you want me to pick up something for you? Food? Drink perhaps? You all did say that you were holed up in a house without those kinds of things. I got a gold seal on me."

"That'd be great. Arigatou."

"Just tell me what everyone wants. Kurama will tell me!" With that said, the torture clone left the mindscape. Shaking his head, Naruto left the mindscape as well, leaving the Kyuubi on his own. Said Fox just went back to waiting for the next time his container needed him.

 **=X=X=**

He came back to existing reality with a deep gasp. Looking around sharply, he saw his clones still guarding him with rapt attention. "Thanks guys."

"No problem." Four of them dispersed, but the one beside him didn't dismiss himself just yet.

"I want to talk to you about-":

The Uzumaki frowned. "I got the memories from the others. Let's go check out what made that thumping noise about an hour ago." He stood up and walked silently to the door and withdrew his tanto. The clone did likewise and went through the door as Naruto opened it. Looking to both sides, he told his boss that something in a plastic bag was at the end of the hallway below where they had made the hole in the roof. The hole that was twelve inches in diameter was very accommodating, but the bag was still unwelcome. From all appearances, it must have come in from outside.

They both stalked up to it, ready to run if needs be. 'What is it?' Naruto wondered.

'Don't know.' The clone knelt down and picked it up. Feeling the bag, he frowned before opening it and took out…

"Oranges?" Naruto whispered in astonishment.

"Yeah." The clone agreed. "And there's some kind of note in here."

"Explosive?"

"Nah. It just says the word 'METALLIC'. And it has the letter 'H' below that. Like some kinda signature."

"What in the world? Any idea what this is about? What if the oranges are poisoned?"

The clone observed the fruit carefully. "No bruising, piercing, holes, funny smells…" It cut an orange in half with his tanto before sampling a small part. "Tastes safe. Still wonder what the note's all about? Think it's from Haku?"

Naruto shrugged and dismissed the clone. Seeing orange seeds that fell to the ground from the dispersed clone, he shook his head before going downstairs with the bag of oranges, still puzzling over the note. As he reached the foot of the stairs, the others looked up to him.

"Get any divine knowledge up there, Naruto?" Kurenai asked sarcastically.

Naruto chortled. "Nope. Hinata-chan, how long was I up there?"

"Around two hours." The girl replied.

"That's alright. How's Shino?"

"He's feverish. And he has complaints."

The Uzumaki snapped his fingers. "Actually, sensei, I've got some news. It's divine."

Everyone looked up the blond now, as if asking a silent question if he was mental.

"I have ways how to figure out ol' Bug Boy's medical case. Can he answer my questions?"

Shino sat up. He looked extremely haggard, but all in all, still retained his glasses, and his somewhat stoic personality. "Hai. What…are they?"

"I don't want to weaken you too much from talking back to me, so I just need some yes or no answers."

"That's alright."

"Does your mouth taste like blood?"

"Hai."

"Chest on fire?"

"No."

"Seeing doubles?"

"…No."

"Does your side hurt? Especially your right?"

"Hai."

Hinata jumped in. "So that's why he favored laying down on his left?"

Shino nodded. "What's next?"

"Do your nerves feel…extra sensitive? Like a mosquito bite now would feel like a wasp sting?" Naruto queried. The more questions answered, the more he felt like Narishi would have a better idea on what he was treating.

The Aburame nodded again.

"I guess that's all I needed. Now moving on-"

"Hold up." Kurenai interrupted. "Now that you asked him those questions, what happens now?"

"Diagnosis." Naruto replied. "The doctor will see to you. Hopefully before you die, that is."

"Naruto-kun? Why do you sound so morbid? There is so much that you haven't told us. Don't you trust us?" Hinata asked.

The boy briefly thought of Haku and growled. "Sure I do. To some extent, that is. All that happens on this mission." He pointed at his sensei. "Is going on paper. Printed for all to see. The less you all know, the better."

"The Hokage will force it out of you anyway!" Kurenai yelled.

"That's if we live. And I'm the key to all of us living. Don't I get some kind of leeway for preserving lives?"

"He's got a point there." Inari stated. "But Naruto-nii? I'd much rather live."

"And you will." The Uzumaki reassured. "But I can't keep telling all I know to a teacher I can't trust based on her bias towards me."

"You know what this is about!" Kurenai spat.

"GODDAMN IT!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs. "YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW?! YOU THINK IT'S MY FAULT! HE APOLOGIZED! GET OVER IT!"

"You're a liar." She said simply.

Naruto hung his head. Hinata stared at him, and suddenly realized that tears were streaming from his shadowed eyes. He raised his head again, and revealed to all red slitted pupils and a feral visage. The look startled her badly, and she suddenly got the feeling of danger.

"Fine! Be that way! Shino and Hinata weren't supposed to know for another three months. MY family was never meant to know but we will NEVER GET PAST THIS UNTIL YOU ALL KNOW!"

"Naruto?" Kurenai asked in a concerned voice.

"You! **Don't say anything**! You're gonna shut up and listen!"

"Now see here-"

" **SHUT UP**!" Naruto roared.

 ***All of the ninja outside were listening to the developing drama with escalated curiosity.***

"I am the jinchuriki for the Kyuubi no Kitsune. That's right! I'm the demon container for the Nine Tails!"

No one spoke again for another two minutes.

"He's…my best friend. The person who helped me live through childhood when I was alone. Who helped me to come to Wave to be adopted by my family. A mentor, a guide, an occasional chakra battery when I needed it." Naruto chuckled here. "And I'm sure that he'd love to chat with you all."

Kurenai's eyes widened along with everyone else who was currently losing their minds. (Sans Tazuna, who was unconscious, and Shino, who's too 'awesome' to show emotions) "Wait a minute-"

Naruto's eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed as his consciousness retreated to the seal. He quickly swapped mentalities with Kurama like in Kimyō Town and the whole area in a split-second later gained a dreadful aura. It was felt all over Wave Country, and all felt as if they were about to die. A short second later, it was drastically reduced, but it was still overpowering in the case of personality, rather than KI as 'Naruto' got back to his feet.

" **Good Evening."**

None answered him. Outside, Kurama could hear the footsteps run away by a little distance but he stayed. Currently, he was only a 'chakra battery' as Naruto had previously stated and in this state, he knew no fighting techniques, save for the few in his own personal forms. Save for his unrelenting aura he suppressed a bit, there was nothing he could really do.

" **You can call me 'Kyuubi' for the time being."** He walked over to the sofa where Shino and Hinata sat. **"Move over please?"**

They obliged his request and everyone could only stare in awe at 'Naruto' as his whole personality had changed like an about turn.

" **I'm going to clear this up as quickly as I can. Tsunami, Inari. Naruto loves you very much and he didn't want to tell you of me, lest you begin to hate him. You could only imagine the hesitancy that rose exponentially since the Yuhi woman's little Jinchuriki 'lesson'. He loves Tazuna as well, but, the guy's out cold. Maybe we can chat later."**

"…"

" **Moving on."** He turned to Shino and Hinata who stared at him and grinned a toothy smile. **"Yeah. He was going to talk to you about me in six months time, but uh, it's been roughly four months. Shino…"**

"…"

" **Stop snooping in his business. Many a time I sensed a kikaichu insect on his person. He couldn't tell when his chakra was being eaten but** _ **I**_ **can. If it happens again and I tell him…Kami help you."**

Shino nodded slowly.

" **Hinata...** "

"Hmm, K-K-Kyuubi-sama?" The girl stuttered in nervousness and fear.

" **At ease. Naruto's still clueless, as you probably know. One of these days, you're probably gonna have to scream it into his face."**

"S-scream what?"

" **You know what I mean."** The Kyuubi reassured. **"Just do it soon, or if you don't want to do it anymore because of me, I'll understand."**

The girl suddenly realized what the possessed host was saying and blushed heavily. She wasn't too sure what would happen after this, but until then, she had better get some facts straight. "Alright."

" **Good girl. As for you, Kurenai…"**

Said woman was on the edge of her seat, ready to bolt if necessary.

" **Stop being a fuckin' bitch**."

Tsunami lost her temper. "I don't know what kind of prank this is, Naruto, but you're taking it too far. Now apologize!"

Kurama's eyes widened. **"What?!"**

"Do it!"

" **Fuck no!"**

The civilian mother got up and stomped over to 'Naruto' and clocked him over the head with a closed fist. "Do it!"

" **What the hell?! I'm the Kyuubi no freakin' Kitsune! I'm not going to apologize to that fuc- Ow! Fuck-damnit!"**

Tsunami raised her fist again.

" **Woman, so help me Kami, if you hit me again, I'll tell Naruto to only save himself, instead of trying to help everyone in this household!"**

"…Wha?"

Kurama stood up, now going on the offensive and strode around the room as he spoke. **"This whole time, he's been grieving his dead father, dealing with the Aburame's shit, arguing with himself about a probable betrayal of a girl who's probably set to slit our throats-"**

 _ ***Outside, Haku who was still listening with Zabuza hung her head while Zabuza grinned.***_

" **-While he's trying to figure if he should hold her in good esteem.-"**

 _ ***Haku smiles a bit under her mask while Zabuza frowns.***_

" **-Dealing with his fractured relationship with his brother, which is fixed to some extent. And this whole FUCKING TIME-"**

"KYUUBI! I will not have profanity in my house!" Tsunami yelled.

" **Hmph. You're lucky he considers you his mother. Fine. I'll respect that. But as I was saying, this whole time, ever since he asked THAT WOMAN FOR HELP-"** Kurama pointed at Kurenai who was still watching his every move. **"With a simple cloning technique so he can pass his genin exams, she tells him to go kill himself, right from the get-go."**

All eyes turned to Yuhi, who had the decency to look a bit ashamed. "You said that to Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, unbelieving. Kurenai set her face and ignored all else while watching the 'Kyuubified' Naruto.

" **And ever since that steaming mess, he has hated being under her tutelage, having to make progress of his own, trying to warn his other two teammates of her snobbery, and they did not believe him."**

All eyes became downcast.

" **And yet still, through all that, he's still working himself into the ground, trying to help you all. Hiding behind fronts of indifference, intolerance, and the like, the boy has a heart of gold. The boy has nothing but good intentions, through all adversities thus far, and I suspect that may never change. You should think real hard on what I said. Oh, and Kurenai?"**

"…"

" **Sorry about your father. You should know that Naruto knows what its like to lose one. TWICE."**

With that said, 'Naruto' collapsed again in a crumple on the floor.

 **(A/N- Due to being stuck for several hours on how to transition this scene, I wrote a poem instead. Hope you don't mind.)**

 **Regrets (Breaking Limits Exclusive) by MRAY 4TW**

 _ **There is so much I know,**_

 _ **And even more unknown.**_

 _ **So much I've done and left undone,**_

 _ **I and my own must face them alone.**_

 _ **T13**_

 _ **There is so much I wish I could say,**_

 _ **Kept it bottled up, day by day.**_

 _ **Uncertainty has made me hold my tongue,**_

 _ **Regrets have escalated, secrets must be shed.**_

 _ **T13**_

 _ **My brothers and I, a team of Thirteen,**_

 _ **Still concealed by shadow, still yet to be seen.**_

 _ **We shall be there for one another,**_

 _ **Each of his own, each other protecting each brother.**_

 _ **T13**_

 _ **Regrets still spike, but soon you'll know.**_

 _ **We're going to fix any and all problems.**_

 _ **Gato, you've had your fun, your tyranny is done,**_

 _ **In the streets, your blood will freely run.**_

 _ **-That, I will not regret.**_

 _ **T13**_

 **=X=X=**

"I guess that's that. Now my family knows. Now Shino knows….Now Hinata-chan knows." Naruto mumbled.

" **No helping it. They drove you to this, but I suspected that there would never be any peace or proper team stability until you did it."** Kurama replied.

They were in the mindscape. Naruto was currently lying on his back on the Kyuubi's massive head while the Fox himself was lying down with his head resting on his fore-arms/legs. Both had decided to remain neutral awhile before figuring out their next move.

" **You can't stay forever. You still need to escape within a day when your brothers arrive."**

"I know." The Uzumaki sighed deeply. "Damn it all."

"' **Damn it all', is right."** Kurama said in accordance. **"I've done all I could using what oratory skills I had. But damn, that woman has a wicked hand. Either that or women zealous about manners just hit harder than most."**

Naruto grinned. "That's Kaa-chan." He got up and stretched. "I'm outta here. Nothing to the plan changes, and if worst comes to worst, I guess I can defect from the village. They've given me a hard time thus far, and if I plead my case to the Hokage, he'd better make some laws, or I'm bailing from the village."

" **Amen to that. But I'd rather you don't."**

"And pray tell why?"

The Kyuubi lifted his head and withdrew one of his fore-arms/legs and swatted Naruto off his head, ousting him back into reality, question still unanswered.

 **=X=X=**

His eyes opened slowly to find himself looking straight up at the ceiling. Glancing to the sides, he realized that he was in the living room with the others who were arguing about what had happened earlier.

Catching on to some garbled conversation, 'Focus' quickly clarified his senses and he rose up, now discovering that his head had had a pillow beneath it.

"Naruto-nii, that was so cool!" Inari yelled, cheering from his seat beside their mother. Naruto chuckled at this, but apparently, Tsunami was not pleased.

"I don't care for that; that 'Kyuubi' soiled my house with cursing." She turned to Kurenai. "And were the things he said true?"

The woman cared not to answer; she was too engrossed in her own thoughts.

"It certainly explains the animosity between the two of them from the first day," Shino reasoned. "I don't know if I should be more concerned with Naruto and what he contains, or about the ideals that both sensei and the Kyuubi have." He coughed deeply at this, before Hinata patted his back.

Naruto gazed at Inari. "Who put my head on the pillow?"

"Ano…that was me, Naruto-kun." Hinata answered from behind him. He swiveled around sharply to face her.

"Arigatou, Hinata-chan."

He got up shakily, took up the pillow, and made it to the sofa where his genin teammate were and took a seat beside them. "So he told you all, huh?"

They all nodded.

Naruto sighed. "Anyone besides Inari and sensei thinks lesser of me?"

Shino shook his head. "No. While I would love to ask more questions, he warned me not to pry. Instead, I'll leave up to you to tell when you're ready."

"Fantastic. Anyone else want to say something? Kaa-chan?"

"He's…fine." Tsunami admitted. "Just get him to stop cursing. Now that I think of it, he must've been the one to influence you to make your mouth as dirty as his was." The reply was paired up with a frown.

Naruto sighed mentally. He was afraid that she was talking about being 'demonically influenced', but she seemed only concerned with the swearing he sometimes did. "Hinata-chan? You?"

"He's alright. If he's been the one assisting you for all these years, then he must not have been anything like the creature we've been lead to believe."

"He…does like…explosions." Naruto admitted. "And to some extent…violence. But what happened all those years ago were not his fault. He was…" 'What was the excuse he told sensei, again?' "He was trying to avenge himself. I can't say anymore."

"All these years, we've been lead to believe that he was killed by the Yondaime."

"Nah, Shino. The Yondaime only sealed him in me. He must've realized that he just needed a leash and a cage instead of being put down."

" **I'm taking offense to this."**

"Aw, calm down, yah big crybaby."

Hinata lifted an eyebrow. "Was that-"

"Yeah." Naruto interrupted. "He said he felt offended."

"Naruto…" Shino groaned.

"Yeah?"

"You mentioned something about a diagnosis. In case you've forgotten, I'm still in the process of fighting for my life…"

Naruto chuckled. "Sorry about that. And no, I haven't forgotten. But I'll be back with you in a minute. I want to know what sensei thinks."

Kurenai stared at the floor. "All I can say is that I'm sorry for telling you to go kill yourself."

The blond sweat-dropped. "O…k… That doesn't sound all that sincere, but uh, what the hell…I'll accept the apology."

"Look. I just need some time to think. If you'll excuse me-"

"Hold on!" Naruto stopped her with speech, just as she got up to leave. "I still need to know what your favorite food is."

She stared at him, incredulous. "What? This is hardly the time for-"

"Just tell me. You don't have anything to lose. You can still go do whatever you were gonna do anyway, just tell me what your favorite is first."

Kurenai snorted. "I like dango. Not my favorite, but I don't have any." She turned and went upstairs, leaving them in the living room.

"That's fine." Naruto called after her. He himself turned to face the rest of his companions. "I need to know your favorites too."

"How is this relevant?" Shino queried with a pained groan.

"Just tell me! You don't have anything to lose, you know!"

"I like dumplings glazed with honey. Now what?"

"Calm down, Shino. I just need you all to trust me. Have I ever steered you wrong?"

The Aburame did not answer.

"My favorite is cinnamon buns." Hinata volunteered.

"I should have guessed that, given how you defended it that time." Naruto remarked. He noticed her blush, but thought nothing of it. "Next!"

"My favorite is…hmm…" Tsunami looked to her forehead in thought. "Peaches. And Inari's is pretty much anything that's meat and skewered."

"Kaa-chan!" Inari chastised. "It's red-peas soup."

The mother leveled a deep stare at her son, who soon relented.

"…When it has a lot of meat in it. Happy?"

"Hai."

Naruto took a mental note. "And I guess my favorite is ramen. I never really diversified my range of meals, but I suppose that it could be that for now. Now don't you all feel better?"

"…"

"…"

"I'm still dying."

"Oh boy. Awkward." The Uzumaki muttered the last in a sing-song voice. "We'll all talk later. Just give me a minute, everyone." He sought contact with the Kurama once again in thought, only to get a grumbled 'what is it?'

'I have messages for Narburei and Narishi. I guess Narishi takes priority.'

Naruto quickly gave in the answers that the Kyuubi took stock of. In another minute, he 'sent' the message to the Medic, who replied back through Kurama.

" **He says 'He's lucky. It's a metallic poison and I can get a cure for that. He would have been dead without a chance of survival if it was an organic poison. Right now, it's affecting his nerves and organs like his kidneys and liver.'"**

"…" Naruto froze. "Metallic?" He asked out loud.

" **That's what I said."**

"Naruto-kun? What's wrong?"

"Diagnosis. And something really weird."

He quickly told them what the Kyuubi had said, leaving out the fact that someone _else_ had told him. They could 'half-understand' that, but Naruto then whispered to Shino.

"Someone outside dropped a note through the roof. It said the word 'metallic'. Know what that means?"

"Can't you ask the Kyuubi? Isn't he the know-it-all right now?" The Aburame asked back.

Leaning back in his seat, Naruto continued his inward conversation. 'Ask Doc what he knows about metallic poisons and oranges relating to one another.'

" **That's…unusual."** The Kyuubi quickly complied and soon got back an answer. **"He says that if someone had a lot of oranges, like the juice, they could flush out heavy metal poisoning out of their systems. At the very least, it can slow the effects."**

Naruto thought long and hard when he heard that. Each minute that passed, he heard his teammate laboring for breath.

"Shino, do you think you'll live for another eighteen or so hours?"

The glasses-wearing boy looked back towards him. As he considered his current state, all he could utter was a 'no.'

"There's a chance that something in this house can help you. There's also a chance that it can kill you faster. What say you?"

One reply and five minutes later found Shino drinking a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. "There's so much I wish I could say, but later I'll tell you. Promise."

They all nodded, and he resumed his conversation with Kurama. 'He's drinking the juice. I think it's safe. It doesn't matter if it was poisoned anyway, he wouldn't have lived to see Doc come help him, and it was his choice to make.'

" **I see. I already told Narishi. He says that he's purchasing 'selenium'."**

'What the heck's that?'

" **I think I know, but I can't remember."** The Kitsune admitted. **"He also mentioned that he's pressed for time, so anyone who's close to a market, you should tell them to buy a lot of coconuts and bring it there."**

'This keeps getting weirder and weirder. Anyway, I need you to tell Narburei the following food items: Ramen, peaches, red-peas soup with a lot of meat, honey-glazed dumplings, cinnamon buns, and dango. Tell him to bring a dozen coconuts and a tall bottle of the best saki gold can buy.' He thought with a grin.

" **That's fine. Anything else?"**

'And after that, you can take a nap.'

" **Finally."**

Naruto came back to reality in a sense. "Well, that's that everyone. Now follow me upstairs." Before they could all move, he silently created shadow clones that all henged into them, and the bunshins went upstairs.

He motioned to each of them to come closer. Since Shino could not be moved, they all tiptoed over to him and they all huddled. "Whisper. I think they might be listening to us. So whisper."

"Okay, Naruto-nii. What's this all about?"

"I sent some dummy clones upstairs to throw them off. The point of the matter is, someone outside knew that the poison was metallic and they gave us the oranges. The oranges are good for metallic poisoning."

"Do you know who dropped it off?" Shino whispered.

"I think it's the person who's dressed up like a mist Hunter-nin. There was a signature of an 'H', and I met a girl who seemed to be trying to get info from me the same night we fought. Her name was Haku." Naruto replied.

"I heard that name before," Hinata whispered. "Zabuza yelled it."

"Exactly. Now, moving on. I've got bigger news. We're getting out of here."

"How? When?" Tsunami asked, now getting excited.

"Five a.m., tomorrow. I've got people on the outside who will be coming to get us. Kyuubi called them."

"You know what? I think I like Kyuubi after all." Tsunami answered with a smile. "But shouldn't someone tell your teacher of what's going to happen?"

"She won't know 'till the last minute." Naruto whispered. "Gives her less time to ask questions I can't bother to answer."

 **=X=X=**

"They're all in the woman's bedroom. They're just talking about how they're hungry and how they should reason with us." Zabuza muttered to the rest of the group as he came over.

Gozu and Meizu smirked. "Won't be too long, now. Soon, their stomachs will soon digest themselves, heh heh." The elder said with a laugh.

Haku who stood close by them slightly hung her head, staring at the ground. She was still heavily pondering if what she was doing was the right thing. On one hand, she had to think of her master's wishes; she was still nothing but a tool. A very unhappy, unpleased, disobedient tool.

It was the way of the ninja. Of all that mattered, it was the bridge builder's life that hung in the balance. Why couldn't they just let the others go free? She had posed this question to the Swordsman, but he had answered that it was Gato's idea. She had never regretted doing another thing so much as her own suggestion that night. It would have been better if she had kept her mouth shut.

"Where do we stand?" She asked.

"We don't have to wait much longer." Gozu reassured. "But in any case, you're on the night watch, and it's my turn to hold up the **Hidden Mist** jutsu with you. Guess I'll be pulling more than just my weight. "

"You should really master the jutsu before all else, Haku." Meizu agreed.

 **=X=X=**

Kurenai was tapped on the shoulder, jolting out of her sleep. Almost instantly, she had a kunai to the offender's throat.

"Gomen." The person whispered.

"Tsunami-san?" The red-eyed woman hissed. "Forgive me for my action, but why did you awaken me?" She slipped the kunai back in her long sleeve, in its secure catch.

"Follow me to the living room." The woman whispered back.

After a brief stumbling in the dark, they made their way downstairs. Here, it was barely lit, but in the dim light, Kurenai could make out the forms of all the others. She even noticed that all were fully dressed and ready as if they were to leave. Shino and Tazuna were in stretchers made with bed-sheets and broom and mop-sticks, and everyone looked expectant.

"What's going on?"

Naruto walked up to her, and presented her with her sandals. "We're leaving. All you have to do, is do what I say, and what our rescuers tell you to do." He intoned with a whisper, with all seriousness.

"Wha? What's going on?" She asked hopefully. "People from the Leaf are here?"

"Even better." Naruto replied. "Just don't freak out, or ask questions. If there's any a time that you should just go along with whatever's being done, it's now."

Kurenai had no idea what was going on. But what she did know, was that Naruto was practically oozing confidence and charisma, and with a sigh of relenting, she nodded.

Naruto nodded back as well. 'Kurama, is everyone within thought range?'

" **Sir yes sir."** The Kitsune bit out. **"Why don't you just ask 'em yourself?"**

'Hmph. All you guys present?'

'Fate, present.' 'Surge, present.' 'Farsight, present.' 'Doc, present.' 'Psychosis, present. Heh heh.'

'Alright.' Naruto answered. 'Let's get on with it. You all know what to do.'

'Yeah. We go all out, while you get the hell out.' Psychosis thought back. The thought implied that he was grinning/smirking.

" **It's five a.m."** Kurama announced abruptly.

 **=X=X=**

'The house was built like a compass.' The sensor clone thought, as he crouched beside his Assassination-specialist brother. 'The front door facing the north, where we are. The fence is like a massive 'U' that barricades the South end that is the back door, and to the East and the West. I'll pulse the area again to make sure that all the ninja are directly ahead of us. While Doc and Psychosis gets them out, we'll be risking our necks.'

"T'is fate that decides that," Fate muttered to him. "All ancestral shinobi have encountered death. Soon, it will be ours, but until then, I'll embrace their ways that have succeeded. Experience taught them through trial and error, and I will learn from it."

"The old ways are crude."

"They are." Fate answered. "But they **are** effective."

'Tell us where the ninja are!' Psychosis yelled in thought.

Farsight gathered his wits, and used all of his inbred talent he had extrapolated from 'Focus' to pulse his chakra like a version of echolocation. As he did, he knew that all the other enemy ninja out there would sense it, and all of them needed to react quickly. As the information bounded back to him, he quickly reached out again to the others.

'Four of them. Three males, one female, if their physiology is any indication. Two asleep, two awake. But if those two are light sleepers, they're awake now from my chakra pulse…they're looking our way, Fate.'

Fate nodded, and in a linear poof of smoke, created a dozen bunshins who he fell in line with. At a single prompt, all withdrew bows from their backs, and affixed an arrow on it, pulling it back taut at a 50' angle. Farsight himself created four clones, who suddenly charged forward through the undergrowth and assorted foliage at the four ninja who stood watching the front of the house.

 **=X=X=**

"Did you feel that?" Gozu muttered to Haku, who stood close by him.

"Hai." She whispered. Looking to her sleeping comrades who were rousing themselves up, they had a distinct feeling of alarm.

"What was that?!" Meizu cried.

"Must've been some kind of chakra wave or pulse; something of the sort." Zabuza growled out his reply. "Someone's trying to sense us. Haku, check the house, make sure that they're still put."

The ice user nodded, and treaded back to the house. Before she could make it halfway, all noses turned to point at the direction of where noisy stomping was coming from; four or five, if the number of was any clue of their numbers. Presently, she had three senbon between her fingers should the need arise.

Four boys came hurdling through the undergrowth, and to her shock, they all resembled Naruto. In clothing that is. But to add even more to the look, all were hooded, and had particularly savage looking masks portrayed on bandannas, and wore shades.

And wielding a tanto, and some sort of a metal stick. Each.

Each of them rushed to each of her cohorts and herself. Promptly, Zabuza swung his sword at the waist and as it struck the clone, it bled what looked like bluish-white chakra, and the Swordsman leapt backwards.

"Daibakuha!" He yelled.

The Demon brothers leapt away with him, before a medium sized explosion ensued, releasing a slight explosion that kicked up dirt, throwing over them. Needless to say, the other three clones were then almost on the others when all combatants fought to keep the clones out of reach, when the kamikaze clones sought to be within it.

 **On the other side of** barb and razor fence, Psychosis giggled a bit. "Ah, there's no better sacrifice than someone else's."

Doc shook his head. "For the love of- ugh, never mind. Did you remember to bring the wire cutters?"

The torture clone nodded. "I can't forget." Quickly spawning a clone, both of them produced a pair of the special heavy-duty scissors. "Snip-snip, my brother. Snip-snip."

They both had the fence cut out in an arch in the required area at the direct south of the house. Surge quickly pulled away the offending refuse of it.

'Wait for the screams, then go in.' Fate thought to everyone. He turned to his own created clones, which still had their arrows at the ready. As they heard the fourth explosion, he spoke aloud to his bow-bearing clones.

"Release the volley."

They all let go, and thirteen arrows took flight. A second later, each had another arrow from the pack on their back quivers, which conveniently held twenty. 'If needs be,' Fate thought grimly. 'I still have more arrows in seals.'

 **=X=X=**

They heard the explosions, and it was all they could do as they quietly waited in the living room. At Naruto's insistence, all kept quiet, although Kurenai had questions that begged for answers.

After a fourth one, Naruto whispered. "Get ready, everyone."

A long, blood curdling scream was heard outside, to the front door in direction. As it continued, kitchen (back) door was kicked down, and Kurenai panicked. In fact, she nearly yelled herself as she saw two people around Naruto's size and appearance bound into the living room, wearing feral bandanna masks and hoods, not to mention shades.

"Let's go, Naruto." One of them hissed.

She hesitated. "How do you know his na-"

"No time." Naruto interrupted. "Psychosis, Doc, get Oji-san and Shino. Everyone else, through the back door. Hurry!"

Tsunami, Inari and Hinata wasted no time. They had fairly good visibility outside, and at the back, another one of the strangers escorted them through the very thin mist to where there was a hole in the fence. It was big enough for Hinata and Inari to walk straight through, but the Mother of the house had to stoop to get through.

"Keep going. Tsunami-san, get everyone to the cave where Kaiza-san stored his fishing supplies, close to the coast. I must stay." He ordered.

The woman nodded, and the two younger ones followed her, while Surge stayed. He turned back to face the space where the kitchen door once occupied to see that everyone else was streaming out. Kurenai was first, followed by his two brothers and the clones they must've made carrying Tazuna and Shino on home-made stretchers. Naruto brought up the rear.

"You convinced her, eh?" Surge called to Naruto softly. "Kurenai-san, please follow him to Kaiza's supply cave. Trust me; you don't want to stick around."

Kurenai was too brow-beaten to even nod a response, and all of them quickly left through the fence. As Surge watched them leave, he waited for the time _he_ was required. It shouldn't be too long now.

 **=X=X=**

 **As the volley of arrows** were released a few moments prior, all of them turned to listen to the sound of multiple objects cutting through the air. At the recognition, Zabuza's eyes widened as he saw the 'somethings' bearing down on their location.

"Shield yourselves!" He bit out. Without further delay, he stabbed Kubikiribōchō into the ground and stood behind it, raised slightly at an angle. Meizu dove behind a tree, and Haku quickly created an ice mirror before her. Gozu was the last still left out in the open, and in a desperate attempt to protect himself, he raised his own gauntlet to try and give some mediocre cover to his face and vitals as arrows flew towards them.

The act wasn't all futile; it protected his organs. Unfortunately, it left his legs completely exposed. As if they could control themselves, one took him in the thigh, and went all the way through to the other side via the muscle mass there.

"Gaaaaahh!" He screamed in its punctuation, and fell on his side, grasping the leg and grunted fervently as he saw the horrible instrument with its eighteen-inch shaft making his leg look like a cross. He lost his half of the control over the already substandard mist, for Haku did not have much talent over that particular jutsu yet.

About another second later, Zabuza yelled. "There's another set coming! Get ready!"

Another volley came and went, leaving everyone but Gozu with arrows sticking up from their bodies. Haku looked to the man bawling on the ground one last time, before it seemed that whoever who was firing the arrows let loose all they had on his current location.

And as if by a single switch, his screaming ceased abruptly; his life snatched from him.

'Scratch off whoever Narkira and his clones just stitched up.' Farsight told the others. 'The little skirmish is done, so it's time to fight 'em. But take it easy, we're still not strong enough to take on these guys in a full-blown fight, if Zabuza the Demon of the Hidden Mist is there.'

'We still must do what we can,' Surge replied. 'All here, onward!'

Fate dismissed his clones and returned his bow and arrows to their current place on his back, before removing a pair of **Kakute** from his weapons pouch. They were merely rings that one could slip their fingers through and wear like knuckles, but the offensive part consisted of two separate two-inch spikes…for each ring.

He slipped them on, and at the same time, Farsight removed his baton and quickly released the catch. It was no secret that he favored the blunt object over the smaller blade tanto counterpart everyone carried. He had practiced with its use, and he was going to demonstrate results.

"Get moving!" The assassination-specialist ordered in tandem.

Both he and Farsight dashed through the bushes towards the three opponents no doubt still alive. Surge who was behind the house ran around the side straight towards Haku. To each their own enemy, and all they truly were…were distractions. At least until all were safely out of reach, then they themselves could beat a hasty retreat.

 **=X=X= Farsight**

As he emerged from the undergrowth, he had to immediately duck a massive shuriken attached to a chain. The closest person to him was a roughly dressed man, and by all means, looked as if he were out for blood. That is, if his near look alike who looked like a pincushion at his lonesome out more in the open was any indication that he was a close associate; perhaps even a brother.

"Die!"

As the sensor clone ducked, he had nearly stumbled, but soon righted himself and dodged the chain for a second time as it was retracted nearly explosively. He assumed a running stance as he got out of the dodge, and was sprinting at his adversary in a dead-on run.

The man decided to rush at him as well, and as both reached the other, Meizu brought down his massive gauntlet down unto the boy's head. Farsight lifted his baton and held both ends, stopping the heavy weapon by blocking it with the hilt/handle with his own that was smaller in comparison.

The force made him buckle under the sudden weight and momentum, forcing him to his knees. Muttering a quick 'thank you' for Narken's lesson about the hilt, he pushed back the gauntlet towards the man with a hissed curse.

"Goddamn brat! You killed my brother!" The man shouted in grief. "Your life is mine!"

Farsight rolled his eyes behind his shades. "Tch. A vendetta? Whatever."

The answer seemed to infuriate the man, and he swung again but this time with nothing but a straight fist. It glanced off of T13 member's cheek as he tilted his head to dodge it, barely in time. The sensor clone realized that the man was currently too close to swing the baton in, and decided to move in even closer.

It would prove to be Meizu's misfortune; as the boy was now within his guard leapt straight upwards to his chin using nothing but his right shoulder, and powered by leaping upwards. The man's head snapped backwards and the man backpedaled in slight pain from the maneuver; he had suffered through worse.

"Graah!" Meizu's determination rose with his infuriated yell, and he lunged straight forward at the boy with his gauntlet. Narsensa simply jumped backwards by around two feet, the gauntlet falling short by practically a mile. He was about to taunt the man, when he felt a sense of alarm. Quickly, he threw himself to the ground as the man launched the shuriken again.

"Well, judging from that, I'd say that you have a poor arsenal of techniques." Farsight stated as he got up quickly and rolling to the side as the chain was pulled in through the spot he was previously in. "Other than yelling at me with horrible breath, screaming your lungs out and that chain of yours you favor so much…meh, nothing special."

Meizu cursed to himself. All he knew jutsu wise was the **Kirigakure** jutsu he wasn't the best in finding his way around like his deceased brother, and a simple genjutsu for when he his in small bodies of water. None usefully right now, he reasoned as he swung his gauntlet again. The boy, as far as he knew was no special thing either. All he had currently, was a freaky-looking mask, and some sort of retractable metal stick. He also sought to fought at close range.

"You're one to talk. You're nothing outstanding either."

"Ah." Farsight replied. "You admitted that you're mediocre. But there's one thing that I've got over you." He quickly sidestepped the man's gauntlet for what would be the last time and grinned.

"And what's that?" The man shouted in his face.

"The ability to not just beat an opponent, but to be able to beat him to death."

The man was just out of arm's reach. Perfect.

Gripping his baton tightly, he swung it from the side and it impacted at the man's side. The atrocious sound of ribs breaking was heard as the man stifled a groan for his side. Not yet done, Farsight pivoted on his left foot and made a full 360' degree spin to increase the momentum of his next strike, which struck the man in the self-same area.

What wasn't broken before was certainly shattered now, and the man clutched at his side with his free hand on the aggrieved side. Stepping quickly to the man's side, Farsight punctuated his next hit at the crook behind the man's knee. The man, on his body's impulse to remove weight from the injured limb, fell to his knees and as soon as that happened, he felt the same instrument try to reshape the base of his spine in a single hit.

"GRAAAAH!"

The man, above all else felt immense pain. Following closely in second place was anger, and third, fear that he was about to lose; not only the fight, but also his life.

He sought one last look of the boy who now stood taller than him, and that was all he saw as the boy channeled chakra into his baton to increase its potency for damage, just before he swung it as hard as he could just at the base of his skull, slightly driving upwards.

And that indeed, was his last look of and at anything.

"That's for whichever of you tried to knock out Oji-san." Farsight muttered. "That is what I call a killer-concussion."

 **=X=X= Fate**

As soon both he and his brother emerged from the bushes, he didn't know what to feel as he saw that the person in his way was none other than Zabuza Momochi.

'Alright, Narkira.' He psyched himself. 'Ninety-five percent of the battle is avoiding getting hit. Don't get hit, and you'll live.'

A dodge of the massive blade later, he once more gained his acquiescent vibe. "Oh well. Everyone's gotta go in their own time."

Zabuza heard him, and voiced his own reply. "And your time is now. You picked out the day for your own demise."

Fate shook his head. "T'is fate. If Kami has willed it, then so shall it happen."

Zabuza lifted the sword by the handle with one arm and swung it at a horizontal angle. "Kami has no say here. I control whether you live or die."

Fate groaned. "No use talking to someone who has a particularly egotistical monologue issue." He ducked the massive blade and stepped in closer towards the man. He reasoned that the closer he got to the man, the less force would be at the hilt of the blade. It was a 'door' principle. More force was required to close it if you were doing it closer to the hinges than if you were to do it where it locked.

Luckily, Zabuza hadn't caught on to that idea yet, but something told him that the weaponry on the boy's hands practically yelled 'close range', and he muttered expletives. Kubikiribōchō was basically a long distance adjustment to what should be a close range weapon, and it no longer really had the advantages that a close-ranged weapon like a sword should offer. Basically, its primary use was to use sheer brute strength and excessive momentum in weight to cleave through people at swinging range.

Pulling it up for another swing, he stepped back a bit before bringing the massive sword down diagonally, hoping that the boy wouldn't be able to dodge it properly. As it fell slant towards the right, Fate stepped right in its path in a daring move. As Zabuza begun to grin in self-accomplishment, Fate smirked under his mask before he leapt up with his feet full on in front just before it slammed through his thighs.

Kubikiribōchō harmlessly dug into the dirt at the same angle, and as it made contact, Fates time in midair ended; he fell and balanced on the flat on the blade with one foot, the other on the blunt 'edge.'

He chucked one of his kakute at Zabuza, allowing to slip off his fingers and a second later embedding itself in the nuke-nin's throat with the spikes. Another second later, all the man was and all he had collapsed into a puddle of water.

"Water clone? No wonder that came so easy. The clone must have been made from early-morning dew." Fate mumbled, as he carefully approached his thrown weapon on the ground and took it up, fitting it on again. "Where is he?"

He looked around and all he saw was Narsensa fighting some guy with an abnormal amount of metal on his hand, and Surge fighting the suspected Haku who was disguised as the hunter-nin. Making a mental note of keeping himself aware of his own fight, he knew that he still needed to be aware-

*!*

Reflexes made all of his muscles go taut before making him leap sideways in a dive to get out of his location. His previously occupied space was then taken over by Kubikiribōchō that had been swung down in a vertical manner. And given the grunt that the nukenin made as unleashed the effort, he would have been in two pieces, neatly down the middle.

As he landed on his side, he pushed off with his feet to roll over the lateral side of his arm and across his back in a half-roll, and got back to his feet. "Tsk tsk. I should keep in mind that you're the master of silent killing." Fate stated in a taunting manner. 'Time to see if he'll take the bait.'

Zabuza smirked. "Indeed. **Kirigakure no jutsu**." He announced, while holding on to his sword with one hand, and his other in a half tiger handseal.

A thick and foreboding mist erupted from the water clone that dispersed earlier, and further supplemented by water-natured chakra, soon blanketed the whole area. He was about to incite fear in the boy and hopefully just finish off the other two who fought Haku and Meizu by announcing vital points he could hit, but he was interrupted by the boy's nearly maniacal laughter.

 **=X=X= Surge**

The Raiton clone sprinted from around the house, and as he made it into the open, he was faced by a hunter nin who held up a wall of ice behind them. He had never intended on facing this person, but on a battlefield, one did not simply choose their opponents. More often than not, it seemed like random chance held that in sway.

Surge whistled at the hunter-nin. "Hey. How're you doing?"

He immediately had to step out of the path of a number of senbon that flew from a fingered fist-hold. "I suppose that you're alright. I'm alright too." He continued, trying to start a conversation. It was heavily suspected that this was the girl, and Naruto insisted that he still need to make sure. Even some recognit-

"Naruto?" A voice from the masked individual spoke softly and unsurely. "How did you get out of the house?"

The ice user was certain that this was indeed the same boy from her encounter in the woods. He had his hood up, and wore a mask that would have certainly frightened her to death if she hadn't lived through other horrors over the course of her life. He also wore shades, and she considered it completely unnecessary. It did make him look 'cool' though, being completely 'incognito' like that. Her punning to herself was half-intended. She released the ice wall technique she held up to protect herself from the arrows earlier, and it shattered to pieces.

"I'm not Naruto." Surge answered as he removed his baton from his back waist-holster. "But I'm just as good as him to talk to. Well, uh," he hesitated. "Almost as good, anyway."

Haku retrieved more senbon as well, from seemingly nowhere. "You're lying. You speak like him, have the same mannerisms, the same gait, personality, even the same clothing and body size."

"You got all of that from hearing me speak a couple sentences and how I ran to you?" Surge asked unbelieving. "You don't miss much, do you?" He ran forward at her, noting how she kept the senbon gripped between her fingers like animal claws. "Too bad you're still wrong."

Haku briefly hesitated, wondering if she really should engage him; but instead, took up a defensive stance with her senbon needles to offend and her free hand to bar. "Naruto, go back inside the house before I kill you."

"Bluffer."

He swung out the baton just before he reached her but instead swung it aiming for her waist. He was still hoping to hurt, but not cause longstanding damage. Haku flinched as he called her lie, but caught his wrist with her left hand. She lunged forward at his shoulder with her senbon to hopefully give him a warning injury, but he caught it with his free left hand at the wrist. What should have been a fight now looked like a reverse tug of war between people who each was trying to intimidate the other.

Surge's work in the mines and use of grav-seals to train began to tell, and he started forcing back her senbon lunge, **and** her free hand. In a mild sense of panic, she attempted a kick at the groin with her right knee, but he lifted his **left one** and put it in the way. Both people got the feeling that their knee-caps just shattered into glass.

She ignored the pain, and decided to use his momentary discomfort to gain superiority in this now handicapped face-off by closing the distance with her senbon. Rather than repel that distance, he gripped her wrist even tighter, until it felt like her tendons and bones were fighting for space to occupy. He was nearly close enough to just disconnect the joint holding her palm to her hand.

The hapless girl dropped the senbon in a show of relinquishment. Surge assumed that she was giving in, and savagely yanked her hand down to her side but she did not resist it. He became a bit confused at this, and it grew even more as he saw his breath blowing through his mask. Quickly glancing down at the wrist he still held at her sides, he noticed her fingers forming what looked like a half tiger handseal.

"What the he- shit!"

He pushed her away savagely in front of him and released her before he quickly tried to do the replacement technique. He was too slow, and he suddenly felt metal intrusions in his left shoulder from behind.

"Gah!"

His entire left arm went limp but he still used hi limbs and made a counter-clockwise turn and used his baton with his still able right swinging with the turn. He just swung, and it made a dent in the look-alike Haku in the head, just over the ear. It was inert, but the baton completely took off that top of the cranium; the clone fell apart into ice, as did an ice wall **behind that** she must've made with only one handed handseals.

He turned back to face the original. "That was cruel and unasked for, Haku." 'Why didn't 'Reflex' help?' The Raiton user wondered.

"Desist and return to the house. If I don't kill you, my master certainly will."

"So if I really were Naruto, and I'm not saying that I **am** , you would have doomed me to die from a lack of sustenance." He tested, assuming a new defensive stance with a now practically-dead arm.

"I…am sorry for that."

"I would still like to thank you for the oranges in his place." Surge stated. "Naruto claims that it helped his friend, and he requested that any who faced you was to warn **you** , and only use blunts instead of sharps."

"…I don't need coddling. And my purposes are to follow my master, even if it inflicts death."

Surge rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't want to get involved. Naruto figured out a major weakness in your **Hidden Mist** trump card, and when he utilizes it, he'll kill any and all to get to Gato. Then he himself."

Haku frowned beneath her mask, before pulling three more senbon. " _Go back to the house._ That's your **final** warning."

Surge looked past her and noticed Zabuza creating the mist again. "And I'm warning _you_ for the last time. I don't need two arms for what I'm going to do. I practiced it a lot."

The mist covered her from behind, and then him as it grew to cover the area in rapidly decreasing visibility. "And what's that?"

All who were on the battlefield heard Fate laughing as if he were insane. It was positively spooky, and unsettled most. "Get out while the gettin's good!" Farsight yelled.

Haku was still yet to make up her mind when she heard the shout. But it she made her choice to beat a hasty retreat when she heard 'Naruto' whisper his technique.

" **Raiton: Jibashi** …" (Lightening release: Electromagnetic Murder)

…

…

…

In that split second, several things happened.

Fate left in a shunshin, still laughing like a lunatic.

Farsight, who was the closest to the undergrowth, dived into it and continued sprinting to get the hell out of dodge, just beyond the range of the mist.

Haku used a water shunshin, and left before she got seriously hurt or worse.

Zabuza was still wondering what the excitement was all about, all by his lonesome in the mist.

Surge held out his right hand that still held the baton, and electricity arced from it like a conducting lightening-rod.

…

…

…

The raiton chakra jutsu took superior class over a jutsu that was created with water and further augmented with water-natured chakra. Needless to say, the whole god-damned mist lit up like a stormy night with Zabuza at the epicenter.

 **=X=X=**

Inari and Tsunami were eating while looking out through the opening of the cave when they saw what looked like lightening flash in a wild and erratic fever over where their home was. Inari sipped at his soup, before pointing at it with an index.

"What's all that about, Naruto-nii?"

"Probably some people who got killed and got their hearts restarted. Several times in alternating order, that is." His brother replied, slurping his noodles. He finished the mouthful of food before he continued. "Psychosis, did you-"

"Yeah, I already did it." The eccentric clone replied.

"What did you do?" Tsunami asked.

"Insurance." Psychosis replied. "Hey Doc, how's Shino and Tazuna?"

"I'm fine. Just give me that damned cork opener for this saki, young man." The bridge builder requested. "Pity Naruto always took away my saki instead of giving me it."

"Tou-san! You're not supposed to drink!" His daughter chastised in between mouthfuls of peach.

"I think I'm entitled to the privilege, considering that I nearly got my brains knocked out of my head, and spent nearly a day unconscious!" He pulled the cork off with his teeth in impatience and took a swig.

Doc found the vein just to the left under the chin. Without further ado, he injected the concentrated selenium into it. "Shino will live. Tazuna will too."

"Right now, I'm living like bloody royalty. Best saki to ever grace my throat."

"Shhh."

"Gomen, Kurenai-san."

"Sensei? Aren't you hungry?" Hinata asked her teacher, noticing how she had yet to eat the dango she was presented. She herself ate a bit of her cinnamon bun and waited for the woman's response.

"I got too many things on my mind."

"…" The Hyuuga fixed her with a questioning stare.

"And I'm not hungry."

Naruto finished eating his ramen and smiled. "Liar."

 **I had to do that to end this chapter. I had several things still left to do, but I guess I can leave it for next time. Don't worry about the 'cheap' fight. I'll make sure there will be another encounter. Besides, my idea for Wave was getting rid of the damn mist. You saw what it did poor ol' house inhabitants. Maybe, just maybe, Wave would have been lesser of Zabuza hiding in 'plain' sight and more visible deaths. Err…**

 **Also, yeah. His foster family and his team all know about (The) Kyuubi, now. They had to find out at some point, and I had intended for them to find out before the Chunin exams. I also wanted Kurenai to come to better terms with Naruto/Kyuubi before then too. The whole bias thing was also getting old; things won't get better overnight, but now, we should have a turn-around. T13 is still a mystery to them; I brought fewer of them to Wave and made them use code names for readers to keep easier track of, as well as eliminating extremely obvious 'Nar' prefix for their names that would be recognizable for his team and family.**

 **That's all. Don't forget to review, people.**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	27. Chapter 27

**Breaking Limits**

 **Nothing too new right now. It's 09:57 pm on Saturday night, and I decided to start typing. Anyway, I've decided that the title for this story is too generic. But it's going to create too many problems if I change it willy-nilly. I mean, it's at the start of every chapter (helps when I'm titling the document to save it) and it's in all the review replies and messages. Therefore, I'm adding a colon tag. Perhaps by the time you get this chapter, I'll have decided on one.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I bet that most of you think that that case is actually a good thing.**

 **27.**

The person suddenly appeared in a deluge of water that actually faded before wetting the ground they stood on. As the ninja looked around, their attention was instantly diverted to the window, and beheld a mighty show of electricity that rippled and arced through the mist outside. The window cracked a bit, but other than that, the electricity wasn't actually a damaging brute force like fire or earth.

Depending on how one took it, that is.

Millions, if not billions of volts were going this way and that outside; the frenzied dance of it was sure to electrocute a person to lose all control of their bowels, and cook it inside their pants as they died.

'Zabuza-sama is out there.' Haku thought in her concern.

A wave of the electricity arced against the house and window, but she was safe. The house was completely insulated from the wattage-death outside, due to the fact of it being made of wood. That was a lucky coincidence of hers, her shunshin taking her to the inside of the house. Perhaps it was because she wanted to stay close to her master, while still escaping her potential and likely doom. Or common sense said to haul ass from the mist, and it wasn't in the house. She supposed that it was a factor too.

The storm outside continued in all of its fury for about a minute before the incessant flickering and buzzing of the electricity ceased. She inched away to the doorway of the bedroom she had found herself in the first place. She took a moment to realize that she was now in the same house to avoid the outside death, when previously, she was outside and helping the effort of it.

'So this is what I've been causing to Naruto and his team and his family? How ironic.'

She was now in the hallway of the upstairs portion of the house. She silently treaded the walkway of it, and she heard what she believed were voices of moaning and such downstairs.

'The family…is still here?!' The ice-user boggled.

Inching her way to the stairs, she finally peeped around it and looked downstairs. To her astonishment, she saw all the people who were originally in the house still there, but they all lay as if they were weak or dying. All family members were on the ground, the bug user was on the couch face down, the girl and the jounin on the ground as well.

'Are they that emaciated and weak? We...beat them? But where's Naruto?'

She was treated to the sight of said boy coming out of what she believed was the kitchen with a glass of water, and tried to give the mother a drink of it. She was more than ready to believe what she had first thought.

"Naruto alone…is still standing? It must be because of his status as a jinchuriki…?" She muttered to herself in reasoning. She came down the steps confidently and deliberately making her footsteps heard.

All who she had presumed conscious or alive, save for the bridge builder and insect user, averted gazes to her direction. She noted how their eyes appeared glassy and listless. That was a certain symptom of malnourishment. How long were they weakened? The attack to escape the previous day must have been a desperate attempt to leave, but were repelled. Now they barely had the energy to move.

Naruto sighed as he turned towards her. "What is it?" He asked irritably. "Here to finish the job?"

She hesitated. "N-no. No. I'm leaving…"

The boy glared at her. "Then get the hell out."

She recalled seeing him fight her outside, and wondered if he could heal quickly. It did make sense, after all. Zabuza had claimed that he had nearly pushed Kubikiribōchō through the Mizukage's whole body, and the bastard was still living. And that sword practically _drank_ blood. It would explain why the boy in front of her was fairly healthy-looking, but not how and why he was in here now. 'Did he love his family and team that much? So much as to not leave them behind when he could escape?' "I will."

She made her way around the whole family and him, giving the group a wide berth. "Gomenasai. I did not wish for any of this."

The boy frowned deeply. And then surprising her, he smiled. "That's good to know, Haku."

She was stunned. "It is?"

"Yeah."

"Well, in any case, thank you for warning me about your technique, Naruto. But did you kill Zabuza-sama?" She asked sternly, leaking killing intent.

"I don't know if he's dead. But I'm not Naruto."

"Hai, you are. But why do you keep saying that?" She recalled her encounters with him. Throughout all, it seemed that there was one thing that she always failed to notice. What was it?

"I'm not Naruto..."

'He used katon and raiton. He can create clones, I know that. Maybe that's what he meant.' She tried to sense for anything like KI, but didn't really get a feel for anything really out of the ordinary. 'Something changed. But what?'

And then all scenes with her encounters began freezing over one location on his clothing.

His heart.

The crest over Naruto's heart.

The first time she saw him in the woods, it was that of a red swirl.

The second time she saw the crest, was a short while ago outside. It appeared to be a symbol of lightning.

This…person in front of her had another symbol. It was of a skull with an 'X' over the forehead.

"My name is Psychosis."

'Psychosis? Believing things that are not true? What kind of a name is… Oh no…' She started backing away to the front door while arming herself with senbon from her sleeve as all the 'unconscious/dead' team and family got up slowly like an eerie nightmare. They all dismissed henges and reverted to their original forms of the person in front of her.

She didn't realize that the broom behind her next to the front door reverted as well, and without her seeing it, got a rather nasty blow to the back of her head with the ring of a kunai. She felt herself groan in pain, but all sound had faded from her own world. She toppled unto her side, and in the last few precious moments of consciousness, she saw the clone who had done the knockout attempt appear to say 'sorry', and the others rush up to her.

Then the whole image blurred, dimmed, and went black as her eyelids lidded, and slowly closed.

…

…

…

"Well, don't just stand there like you don't know what to do! Pick her up, and let's get out of here!" A clone yelled in his annoyance.

"Don't feel like it." The original torture T13 member said with a smirk. "One of you guys has to do it."

Slowly, and one by one, each fabricated clone used their tantos and nonchalantly and casually killed themselves, leaving a sweat-dropping Narburei and Haku by themselves. "What the actual fuck?"

He created another clone, and when he ordered them to do the same thing, he killed himself as well.

"Apparently, this isn't going to work." He decided. He unsealed a large roll of duct-tape and some chakra-sealing tags he had purchased in Konoha.

"Time to earn my living, I suppose. Sorry Haku, but you're not going to stay unbounded like that. Heh heh."

 **=X=X=**

Surge gazed all around him. The mist was receding on its own accord, and it soon revealed something, or rather _someone_ , slung over something else. When the visibility was fully cleared up, he saw that it was Zabuza slumped over the hilt of his sword that had been stabbed almost three-quarters of its length into the earth. In his woes, the man must have had the blade and the handle in an iron grip.

Hearing stalking sounds from all sides, he turned to see his brothers approaching from all directions: one from the low shrubbery, one walking in resolutely from among tall trees. And one from the front door of the house.

He determined the first to be Farsight, the second to be Fate, and the third was Psychosis. The third had the body of the girl he fought previously draped around his shoulders in a fireman carry. It was a bit cumbersome, because Haku had her wrists and ankles heavily bound in duct tape.

'Whoa, what the hell?!' The sensory clone thought, his eyebrows rose over his shades.

"It's alright, guys." The torture clone half-shouted to reassure. "Seals are on."

"She can still choke you, or break your neck upon her awakening." Narkira stated matter-of-factly as they gathered. "What then?"

"Let her do it."

"Geez, suicidal bastard." Farsight muttered. "In any case, is Zabuza dead?"

"He's fried." Narshokku said firmly. "So are the other two, if they weren't dead already. Let's get outta here."

"I'll remove his head." Fate decided, and stepped closer to the man to do so. He got out his tanto, but was pulled back by Psychosis. "What is it?"

'Why the hell would he stab the ground with his sword?'

They were all silent vocally and mentally for a good half minute.

'Grounded the electricity. Redirection. Shit.' Surge realized.

Farsight needed no prompting to throw a kunai at the man to test his awareness of what was actually going on. He wasn't very surprised when the man caught the kunai before it embedded itself in his side, even while his head was still sagging down in his slump.

Zabuza stood up, as if he were perfectly fine, and pulled the sword upright with one hand. "Nice try, brats. You still did a number, I admit that. But not enough." He growled, and narrowed his eyes in a glare. Killing intent was now awash over them, but they were immune to it, due to the instance of Naruto training to adapt to the Kyuubi's own while they were in the mindscape of his earlier days.

"Well. This was…half-expected. I knew if we were lucky, you could be electrocuted and become unconscious. Too much to hope for, I take it?" Surge spoke pleasantly and casually. "Could we have a do-over?"

The man threw the kunai back at the boy's head. He had to sidestep slightly, but was still completely unnerved. "Please?"

The man ignored him to stare what at another one of the boys who appeared to have captured his protégé. "What the fuck? Haku?"

"Busted!" Narburei exclaimed in a squeal.

"We've done what we came here to do. Let's just get the hell out of here," Fate argued.

"That will not be the case." A new voice announced.

All five people averted their eyes to the direction of the voice. To their shock, they regarded what looked like alternate versions of Konoha's Anbu, but they had Mist Symbols on their masks that were identical to Haku's, where the hitai-ate symbol would have been.

There were twelve of them.

"Fuck no." Zabuza breathed.

"Fuck yes." Narburei said in counter. "They're here to cap your ugly-ass head!"

The anbu stared at the boy who appeared to have one of their own, albeit smaller form, over the boy's shoulders. The person who appeared to be leading them gave a nearly unnoticeable nod to his subordinates. "Gato was right. All of them **are** hostile. Kill them all. Kill the Leaf ninja too if you find any; the report indicated that they've been creating problems for this country." He ordered in an unnerving monotone.

There were several responses to this.

"Gato sold me out?!"

"I'd like to live, please."

"It's Kami that shall decide if I live or die."

"How come I didn't even feel these guys practically breathe down our necks the way they showed up?"

"What the hell did Narkaze love to say? You gotta fuck up early to get it out of the way? I think this suits this situation perfectly."

All eyes turned to the torture clone.

"What?"

"I wouldn't mind if you killed him first." Fate stated to the still-watching Hunter Nins. "He's sick, and needs to be put down."

"Fuck off, Narkira."

 **=X=X=**

The cave was fairly quiet, but it was suddenly broken as Doc and Naruto leapt up at the same time and yelled, startling the others who were close by. Then the third masked boy dispersed in a puff of smoke, indicating that he was a kage bunshin.

"Shit!" (X2)

"What the? What was that for?!" Inari shouted his question. "Did they find us?"

Naruto shook his head. "No. Something much worse."

"What's worse than being found by our enemies?" Shino asked. He coughed heavily; the selenium hadn't fully healed him yet. In fact, it was far from it, and he felt that his usefulness was extremely diminished. He was currently a liability and hindrance to any potential conflict.

"Being hunted by them, and then killed. But let's just say that there are more combatants." Naruto said simply.

"How do you know that?" Hinata queried. She finally took a moment to observe the boy before her, and the one who stood next to him. Naruto seemed to only lack the shades and mask, and the hood over his head that the other had. In fact, it almost looked uniform. "Come to think of it, now that we're no longer in the heat of the moment, how come all that who helped us look so much like you?"

The hooded one shrugged as Naruto declined any form of answer. Kurenai had long seen these similarities, but had declined to ask. Who was she to look a gift horse in the mouth? They escaped, lived, and she got some food in her stomach. But what was this talk about more combatants?

"We're wasting time." The healer remarked to his other. "I'll tell them. The Mist sent about a dozen hunter Nins to kill Zabuza-"

"That's damn good news, actually." Yuhi interjected.

"And apparently, Gato went out on a limb and said that all the Leaf ninja here were helping him with any illegal activity he's up to."

"…"

"He can't do that! He's the one creating the problems! He-"

"We sent complaints to the Mist." Tazuna interrupted his daughter. "They never got there. But Gato is like the stamp to a letter or message scroll. He alone can send messages overseas, since he's controlling the shipping. It's not too surprising. I bet'cha he made all of us to look like killers and trouble makers, and he's suffering. Maybe he even bought them off. The bastard was rolling in money like a pig in filth, anyway. Hence why I made the trek to the Leaf to hire ninja."

"For the love of- What the hell, Naruto!" Kurenai yelled at the top of her lungs, drawing all eyes to her. "If it's not one thing, it's something worse. If this goddamn mission was an A ranked one before, then it's probably S ranked now. A dozen hunter Nins?!"

"Afraid so." He said simply.

"Language around my sons, Kurenai-san." Tsunami rebuked sternly. "I don't think it's hopeless. We could just complain to these new ninja. These so-called hunter Nins aren't cold blooded killers, are they?"

"…"

"Well, to hell with this, Naruto." Doc said. "Our brothers are down there fighting just to escape. We need to go down there and help them now, or it'll be on your head. I know what you want to do, so just ask her, and let's get on with it."

The original Uzumaki sighed. 'Tch. So bossy.' "Kurenai-san, I'm going to need a little help-"

"No."

"Well, now that that's out of the way," Doc remarked, as if commenting on the weather. "Time to go."

The leader of the T13 nodded, and pulled up his frightful bandanna mask, and pulling his hood over his head. He turned fully to leave, but as he nearly completed his exit of the cave, he stopped, and spoke without turning. "Hinata-chan? Shino? Please take care of my family."

And with that, the two dashed away.

"Did he just say…brothers?" Tsunami asked to no one in particular.

 **=X=X=**

"You know what? I think they listened to you, Fate. They look like they're out to kill him as if it's a priority."

"It's not because of that. It's probably because he's running around with Haku on his back, and she looks like one of their own."

Narsensa turned to see Psychosis try to dodge a myriad of water bullets. "OI! Drop the dead weight and run quicker, you idiot!"

"For the love of Kami, someone HELP ME! I can't reach the gravity seal!"

"What a fantastic way to yell out one of our trump cards." Fate rolled his eyes as he dodged the massive zanbato and simply punctured the clone with his kakute. With a small amount of satisfaction, he saw the water clone collapse into a puddle of its own liquid.

It could have been worse. They could have been fighting one handed. Besides that, it was as bad as it could get.

Everyone…was fighting everyone.

Between a dozen hunter Nins still deciding to fight Zabuza, or kill the boy with the apparent comrade on his shoulders, or the last four boys, it was a confusing melee. All of the hunter nins were keeping distance from the nukenin swordsman while trying to kill the four boys, and find a way to kill the fifth one running around like a headless chicken, without killing the 'captured.'

And the boys were basically fighting everyone else while dodging relentless attacks.

Zabuza was trying to bifurcate everyone, while creating water clones to keep them occupied.

It was a miracle that no blood had been shed yet, although it had only been a few minutes.

"We need to get the fuck outta here!" Farsight yelled. He neatly side rolled to avoid a dropping slash from a water clone's 'sword', courtesy of reflex. As the attack followed through with him safely out of the way, he flung his baton in the clone's face. As it dispersed, he quickly retrieved his baton.

"We need a plan." Fate argued.

"Well, **I** for one need a doctor." Surge complained. "I've got a dead left arm, in case none of you noticed."

"Well, what do you want to do then, huh?! Take a pass?!" The sensory clone yelled, before he had to dodge some water bullets by leaping up into a tree. More of said bullets attacked him there from the side, once more driving him to the open with the others.

"I can do that?" The raiton clone asked brightly. The moment didn't last long as a multitude of shuriken and ninja-wired kunai nearly netted him and tore him to pieces; or rather would have if he hadn't substituted for a log that had highly emphasized damage to it. "Well, at least these guys aren't too focused on any one of us at the same time. Not too sure what would happen then." He muttered to himself.

"Where's the fucking help?! Naruto said that her life takes priority! Oh no…!" Psychosis panicked.

"What?!"

"Oh. Not too sure if it's important…" The torture clone said in hesitation as he seemed to enjoy running in dodges to save his skin.

"What! Is! IT?!" Narsensa shouted, rapidly becoming more and more frustrated and short-tempered.

"I need to take a piss!"

"…"

Two more figures ran into the clearing, close to where it seems the brothers were holding their own. "Alright, we made it." Naruto announced. "Anything changed?"

"No." Fate said coolly. He temporarily transferred his kakute to his left pinkie finger, un-slung his bow and docked an arrow on it. Without any warning of prior prompting, he released it and let it fly at the presumed real Zabuza, but the man blocked it with his sword, before continuing his efforts to carve up the hunter nins. "We need to do something about the girl. Either kill her, let her go, do something. But she can't stay on Narburei's shoulders. She's endangering him, and if she wakes up, I'm certain that she can, and **will** snap his neck."

Narishi ran over to Surge, and examined his shoulder. "Need a Doctor, huh?"

"Thank you, Kami. Can you do something for it?"

Watching the new developments of new arrivals, all the hunter Nin leapt to each other's sides, and stood in a line. After nodding briefly to one another, they lifted their masks from over their mouths and went through around six handseals.

" **Doton: Ritēna-iri Dōbutsu no Jutsu**!" (Earth Release: Caged Animal technique)

"They use doton?" Naruto commented in astonishment. "And here I was, all ready for a water fight."

Then they all ate soldier pills in a ridiculously accurate and simultaneous action, as four large earthen walls rose up all around the fighters; they themselves included. Thinking absentmindedly, Naruto recalled the fighting stadium back in the Leaf, and by all perception and account, they were very similar, save for the seating. It was the same in height and size.

Then more handseals followed. Recognizing them, Zabuza grinned before he laughed. "That's it! Give me a fighting chance!"

" **Suiton: Bakusui shōha**!" (Water Release: Exploding Water Shock Wave)

And to the boy's varying levels of disgust, fascination, awe, and nervousness, the anbu team collectively had their bellies distended as if they were full with something, before they all 'vomited' a massive deluge of water. It didn't just stop there; it was as if the water somehow multiplied on its way out, and in an instant, everyone found themselves ankle-deep in water. By the time it rose to their thighs, the boys decided to stand on the water like everyone else, lest they have to tread water or drown.

"Well…Damn. That has to be coolest and most disgusting thing I've ever seen. But yeah, that's the kind of thing I expected, anyway." Naruto commented. The water still rose, but the anbu had stopped 'doing' the technique a while back. It was as if the jutsu continued by itself, and the water rose so much until the housetop for the home close by was a little island by itself. "Kaa-chan isn't going to be pleased with the water damage."

Psychosis looked up. 'I bet we look like the meat in some kind of a Kami-damned soup bowl right now. Weird."

And so everyone stared off to each other, all in a triangle; that which was based on location point-of-view. On one side, all the anbu stood in a straight line; Zabuza stood by a few of his water clones; and the six T13 members stood in their own group, with Naruto, Fate, and Farsight at the front. Surge and Doc stood beside each other (Doc was still trying to figure out Surge's injury) and Narburei was at the back, still with Haku on his shoulders.

Deciding that anyone and everyone else could be hatching plans, Zabuza took the offensive. He himself and his clones charged the anbu. All had their swords in their right hands or left hands straight out in preparation for a swing. And at that point, all silence and order fell into oblivion.

 **=X=X= T13- Naruto & Fate & Farsight**

There was no mistake.

Six of the anbu Nins were rushing to take them on. But three somehow diverted to take on his brothers in a strafe while the other three dashed headlong to take on the three brothers at the front. All of the T13 brothers there needed no second urging to deactivate their gravity seals to compete with the anbu, and hoped it was enough. But Psychosis still had his issues with reaching his seal, and Doc had to deactivate his for him also.

"Here's the plan. Everybody fight one, and don't die." Farsight bit out, only seconds before a kunai nearly plunged into his gut if he hadn't knocked it away with his baton. "Whoa! Improved speed. What I thought was normal before now seems really…"

"Sluggish. I know." Naruto finished. He made his choice to forgo the baton and use the tanto as his main weapon for once, and parried a slash from his adversary's kunai. "Best…trump…ever."

He allowed his foe's kunai to slide back to the hilt of his tanto, and pushed it off to the left and allowed the man's body weight to divert from forwards to the side. As the man's body turned, Naruto kicked the man from behind the knee in the crook. As the man's weight crumpled down on the failed limb unto the knee, Naruto felt…stupid.

'Are you guys sure you needed help?'

'But of course; it's a lot easier one-on-one.' Farsight thought back. 'Although someone should really hurry and finish their fight to help the dumb torture bastard still yelling his head off.'

As Naruto lunged forward with his tanto at the man's neck, the foe caught his hand at the wrist before the weapon could end his life. He wrenched the boy's wrist, but to his surprise, it did not give. In fact, he was merely trying to keep the boy from finishing the job. 'How is he this strong?!'

The man dropped his kunai and created a water clone with a one-handed handseal, that which formed a single arm into a blade that nearly took the boy's head off, had he not ducked.

Control relinquished, the anbu allowed the water clone to occupy the boy's attention while he went through handseals in a blur. Naruto still noticed them all as they clashed and recognized the pattern. Experience told him to start strafe-running.

" **Suiton: Jūsei**!" (Water release: Gunshot)

Water bullets were spammed from the man's mouth as they trailed the boy. In what was considered common sense, the anbu fired some more ahead of the boy, but Naruto merely released his hold over the control of chakra on the bottoms of his feet, and slipped under the water. As the jutsu ceased, Naruto concentrated a large amount of chakra at his soles and it buoyed him up violently, so much so that he practically flew straight up like a balloon that was held under. He was still gripping his tanto, but he put the blade in between his teeth as he created a single raiton clone, which dashed off at the anbu in a kamikaze run.

Not knowing what to expect, the man flung three shuriken, but the clone easily dodged them as he tackled him head and shoulders first, and went off in an electric daibakuha.

* **BZZZZZZT***

"Gaaah!" The man was racked with painful spasms, but he wasn't the only one. In fact, everyone felt it. Even Surge, although for him, it didn't quite hurt nearly as much.

All fell to their knees in the water, electricity dancing on their flesh as their muscles and jaws locked up and tightened.

"Grrrhhhht!" Zabuza's clones dispersed seconds before they could kill a hunter Nin or two, and the sword that the man he himself wielded seemed to make him get some of the worst of it; and he accidentally dropped it where it sunk faster than a rock. "Who…did that?!"

Naruto decided to not take responsibility, for he knew it was a rhetorical question. Instead, he refocused his attention on the anbu who he was fighting pull himself together, and pull out a kodashi from a seal.

'Oh boy.'

In the meantime, Farsight recovered and decided to just try and go on the offensive, instead of constantly dodging his foe's seemingly endless assault of kodashis held in both hands. That was still a major 'if'. They were both close-ranged fighters, but it was the blades that had the better reach.

"Pity you, huh?" Farsight ventured.

"…" A grunt of effort brought the two swords down unto the boy's shoulders in direction, but he repelled the effort by holding the baton across to catch the two swords on it in a clash. Before his opponent got smart enough to use her legs, the boy kicked as hard as he could between the legs.

"…"

"I know that _hurts._ Tell me that it didn't."

" _It didn't._ "

The anbu lifted her right sword and slashed it to the side. Hoping that his steel-lined resilience gloves held, he grabbed the blade and held on tight. He even went as far as to pull it from her grip and threw it away. "Wow! They'll let anyone be an anbu these days!" Narsensa taunted.

The woman didn't answer. Privy to her own thoughts, she knew that only the six fighting the supposed 'children' were all chunin, including herself. The ones fighting Zabuza were the only jounin on this undertaking; the chunin were meant to kill the demon brothers. And a supposed renegade girl with a bloodline, who they had yet to see.

She refocused her fight on the brat engaging her and leapt backwards, studying his features. "Who are you?"

"My name?" Farsight appeared to be deep in thought. "Would you like my address too, lady? You gotta be a lady, 'cause you got no nuts, but I first thought you were a guy. You don't have a rack. Gomen."

She wanted to get upset, but the truth was, the kick did hurt, but not as much as a guy would have been in. She was thankful that she was a female. But the boy in front of her was not normal. At the very least, he was practically as strong as some of her superiors, muscle-wise. 'He's trying to get me upset.'

The boy assumed his stance with the baton pointing at her. "I practice the most with this thing." He said, indicating the baton. "And I'm not letting anyone besides my brothers Tai and Ken get the better of me in close range fighting." In a burst of speed, he was in front of her, standing as if at attention. "If you remain here, I'll beat you to death."

He got an attempted slash at his neck for his trouble. He tensed himself, and focused chakra into his baton. The kodashi was blocked, and didn't even budge the baton. "Tch. Just a chunin. Naruto, and by extension me, are able to beat low level jounin with the seal deactivated. I thought all anbu ninja are crazy strong, and we were trying to run away. I guess it should have been you who tried to run away." He remarked in disappointment.

The tone was condescending, and the woman held her sword in a double grip of hands. With a rapid flurry of slashes and thrust, she tried her best to kill the smart-mouthed boy who dared speak to her as if he was her superior. But it went for nought as he seemed to get bored of her attempts. As he redirected a thrust away from his midsection with his baton, he decked her in her masked face, and knocked the facial obstruction clean off.

Her face now revealed, he whistled. "Hai. You're just another pretty face. Shame."

She pulled the kodashi back up closer to her body and grabbed him by the shoulder, before attempting one last time to skewer him. He instead shook off her grip on him, and slammed his baton on the approaching sword to direct it down. He then thrust-kicked her low wrist with his heel to relieve her of her weapon. It flew from her grasp behind her and sank in the water with a splash, but he didn't stop there.

He smashed his baton upwards under her chin, as her head snapped backwards, he punched her in the gut with his left fist, making it sag down again as her air left her all at once. He then used his baton again by the handle to bring it crashing down unto the back of her head.

She saw flashes in her vision as she yelped in pain. Quickly placing the baton in his mouth, he grabbed her by the back of the head and shoulder, and forcefully submerged her head beneath the water.

And he kept it there.

And kept it there.

Long after her struggles to escape drowning had come to an end.

"Damn. I wonder how Fate's doing."

Said T13 member was having the time of his life, having figured out that they were fighting chunin. "I'm living today, it seems."

"You bastard! Where's the bloodline holder?!" The anbu yelled his question. The boy in front of him just kept dodging all the jutsus and weapons thrown at him, but he'd be damned if he quit; his superiors would have his head.

"Don't know who you're talking about." Fate lied simply. He sidestepped the man's clumsy slash in his efforts to separate his body from his head, but the man miserably failed. The dodge completed, he stepped inside the man's pitiful 'guard' and thrust-kicked his knee, making the man turn sharply with it and fall to his un-offended one. Now on his level, Fate stabbed the man with his left kakute in the man's neck with a hooked jab. He then lunged upwards with his right one under the man's chin straight up.

The man gurgled as his own blood filled up his throat and the inside of his throat, while on the outside it bled out in a gout past the surface and ran freely. Fate shook his head as he lifted his foot up and extended it at the man's person, pushing him off. With his eyes glazed over, the man collapsed into the water and floated belly up, and marring the water around his head/neck/shoulders bloodily.

"That's that." Fate said firmly, as he turned to see Naruto cut his opponent's throat with his tanto. 'Naruto won his fight. What else is going on?'

He watched Zabuza create a large water dragon in his fight with the last six anbu, but he seemed to be losing. "Huh. He's pathetic without his sword, regardless of the fact that he's trying to hold his own."

 **=X=X= T13- Surge, Doc, Psychosis.**

Surge didn't really have to do much, but it would have been quicker if his arm was 'alive'.

He poured in a ridiculous amount of raiton chakra into his baton. He had excellent control over it, and he was still trying to explain the situation to the man trying to kill him that he was mistaken.

"Hey Mister. We're innocent, I tell you! We're fighting Zabuza too, you know! Even I nearly killed him, I swear!"

The anbu glanced behind him and saw his comrades fighting the boys practically get murdered. "Drop your weapon, then I'll believe you."

"Hell no! You drop **yours** first! Err, please?"

The man decided that he had enough of the boy's simpering, and realized that he was handicapped the way his left arm flailed about as if it were limp. But thinking that it could be trick, he decided to just attack that side, rather than ignore it.

Surge's eyes widened, before he feinted a thrust with the baton. The man sidestepped and dodged it to attack his still-useless arm, but the boy decided that he would have none of it. He swung a backhanded blow to the man's jaw, and the man's body was seized by electricity; thankfully, it was enough only to stun him and not harm anyone else, but he continued while he still had the advantage.

'Why does everyone take my politeness and meekness for weakness?' He wondered as he pressed on the offensive.

He swung the baton again, but this time it was to the man's temple, knocking him out. The man crumpled with the blow sideways, and fell face down in the water.

And the Raiton-using clone watched the man drown.

"Gomen, sir. Didn't mean to kill you…"

His attention was brought to Doc who ran around his opponent in a burst of speed, and stomp-kicked him in the back of his knee, and while the man fell down to a kneel. Doc then grabbed the woman's hair and pulled her head back; he then, without hesitation pulled his tanto across her throat before releasing his hold on her.

"I pronounce thee dead." Doc glanced at the sun, before back at the floating corpse that was polluting the chakra-made water with blood. "Time of passing: Eight a.m."

"That was cruel." Surge spoke up in rebuke.

"Hey; I'm a doctor. And doctors are sometimes forced to give bad news from time to time." Narishi said in his defense. "Now then, sir, are you responsible for the dead patient?"

"That's a good funny you made, Doc!" Narburei yelled as he continued his incessant dodging. "But I'm still handicapped! …Holy shit!"

"What?!" Doc yelled.

"She's waking up!"

"Hmm…?" Haku's eyes fluttered, before they fully opened. Upon gaining her bearings, she didn't recognize the current fighting conditions. Even worse, her wrists felt like the flesh on them was being pulled off of it painfully, as were her ankles. "Ugh. Where am I?"

"You're currently in Nami no Kuni, girlie." A voice beside her said simply, albeit in an excited tone. "Or more specifically, on my upper body. Mind shifting a bit more to my right? You're getting cumbersome to run around with your upper body on my left side."

"What? Run?"

Fate decided that Psychosis's behavior was getting to be too much. Once more handling his spike-ring kakute on his left pinkie, he docked another arrow on his bow and loosed it at the anbu who apparently didn't realize that his lesser cohorts were all dead. Catching him by surprise perfectly in his blind-spot, it impacted him in the back of the neck and flew half-way through. He was soon another floating corpse.

Psychosis fist-pumped with a free hand. "Hell yeah. I'm awesome."

All of his brethren resisted the urge to hit him upside the head and gathered close by him, still keeping an eye on Zabuza who was still fighting the last six anbu ninja. The torture clone whistled. "Wow. We got lucky, huh? Looks like he's the only one who pulled the short straw when it came unto fighting these guys. The ones after us really suck though- Gh *Choke*"

"Wait, Haku! Take it easy! Don't kill him!" Naruto yelled. She persisted regardless.

Fate swore. "Bullshit. You keep defending her, and she's killing our brother, as stupid as he acts most of the time. I knew we should have killed her!"

The mask turned to all of them, emphasizing that she was acknowledging each of them. She didn't stop trying to choke her carrier by using the back of her upper arm and pressing it into his neck against her side. "Who are you?"

"Release him, or perish."

"Let him go!"

"Who are you?"

"Last warning." Fate said in his monotone, as he leveled another arrow and pulled the drawstring as far back as it could go; extremely taut.

"Let him go, Haku!" Naruto yelled.

" _Who are you_?" The Hyoton user persisted.

In a last ditch effort, he yanked down his mask and pulled back the hood from his head. "I'm Naruto! See?!"

She relented in her efforts to dispatch the person who seemed to have been wearing her like a scarf. "Where am I?"

Psychosis, after a brief recovery, decided that his life was no longer in danger, and pointed at the 'island'. "See that? That's the roof for the house."

The girl's eyes widened behind her mask. Looking off into the background, she saw her master fighting a losing battle with six Kiri Hunter Nins and she squirmed in an efforts to try a kawarimi to go assist him; she failed to do so.

"What?" She tried to create some ice, but failed in that as well.

"No chakra, girlie. Sealed."

"Let me go!" She begged. "I must help him!" She tried to pull on the duct tape holding her in bondage, but it failed to give, and only hurt her the more she tried. "Please!"

"Help who?" Naruto asked.

"Zabuza-sama!"

Naruto sighed in a groan. "Honestly, I don't know what I want to do anymore. I just wanted to 'capture' you," he made air quotes at this. "And hopefully learn some things about Gato, and other such things, and then these bastards show up. As far as I know, Gato called them, and said that pretty much every ninja here was to be eliminated with extreme prejudice."

Her air caught in the back of her throat as her mind ran away with her at top speed. 'Gato betrayed us? Hmm. That's actually not that surprising. He must've done it, thinking that everyone must be either weak or dead, and easy to pick off. That's why he called them, although it could be argued that it was a day or so too early, if Naruto hadn't escaped. But Zabuza-sama and I need to fight or escape this confrontation. But we can't take on six jounin at once, I'm not even at that level. Furthermore, master seems to have lost his sword.' "Perhaps we could come to an agreement?"

"Not happening." Naruto said flatly. "We're leaving, while they haven't focused on us. If you want to go die for and with him, that's fine by me and my brothers."

"Your brothers?" 'Well. This got a whole lot more confusing. But it just wasn't the time to ask unnecessary questions.' "I _need_ your assistance."

"Psychosis, take her off of you. We're getting out of here." One said irritably. "Now."

The one who was named so heaved her off and carefully set her down carefully, holding her about the shoulders since she couldn't stand on the water without chakra. "Gomen. But Naruto's making up our minds, so to speak."

"Maybe we could help her?" Another one suggested.

"Have you forgotten that she helped to jail them in their own house, dying of starvation? Why should we help her?" The one with the bow said, still aiming at her to keep her cowed.

"I agree with Fate." The one who made the order said in accord. "Everyone had to nurse injuries. Besides, in a world like this, it was plain that this situation was in black and white. She worked with Gato against the suffering people, and against your family who wished for better. She's just desperate now for what she does not deserve."

Haku didn't know what to say. She felt as if she were being put on trial. "I never lifted a hand against the people."

"Did you do anything to aid them?" Naruto asked.

She hesitated. Most recently, there was the time the couple were antagonized, and the husband was killed when she could have done something to save, or at the very least help to placate the angst emotions. She had chosen not to, out of subordination to her master when she knew that her idealism told her to, with every fiber of her being. "N-no. But p-please help-"

"You have your answer, Naruto." The one with the bow said. "She doesn't share your ideals and morals. Watching a crime without helping the victim is as bad as committing it."

"I do!" She exclaimed. "I do know that what I did was wrong. I regret those actions." She brought both of her hands to her mask and pulled it off. "But we need your help. All that we did was in an effort to earn money for good purposes. It's for the rebelli-"

"I know what's happening in Kirigakure." Naruto interrupted. "I read all about it. The question remains, why should we help you? Even after you wheedled me for information, taking advantage of the fact that I was grieving?"

"Not all of that was counterfeit. I did care."

"I believe her." The one she fought earlier piped up.

"Even if she did, she then helped to keep the family and team in their own living grave." The one with his baton seemingly glared a hole into her from behind his shades.

"She's still the same one that helped to prolong Shino's life for a little longer so he could be healed."

"All fair points." Naruto stroked his chin. "But for all we know, she could have poisoned him herself, and felt a bit guilty afterwards. Besides, she had no idea that anyone would have arrived to help him before he expired."

"Hmm…yeah. I don't too trust her, either." The one holding her up said. "I can look past the fact that she nearly killed me, seeing that I 'captured' her and all that. But what I mean is, even though what I set up earlier was a trap, she basically walked right around everyone; this was when they all played the part of injured, suffering, unconscious or dead. I wasn't really feeling the pity, if you know what I mean."

Well, that's it. From what she heard from all six of them, only the one she herself fought earlier had her in fairly good esteem, four were clearly against her, and Naruto had his doubts.

The swordsman in the background was not going to last much longer, judging from his currently bleeding wounds while he had to begin going on the defensive while dodging killing blows.

"Please! I'll do anything! I'll buy your services, if that's what you want!" She pleaded, although she knew she had very little, especially in the way of finances. That is, near zero.

"I don't think so." The one with the bow intoned. "You can't just buy this issue away, and besides, we have more money than we know what to do with."

"My master is in peril! I owe him my life!" She begged. "I'll become your servant, your slave if I have to! My chastity?! You can have that too! Just please help us!"

"Did she just say slave? Chastity?" Naruto asked to clarify with a blush, his eyebrows raised in shock. She yelled back a 'hai' while tears streamed down her cheeks.

Ah, desperation. It afflicts us all.

"What?! No!" Naruto exclaimed, before trying to regain his composure. He quickly cut off the duct tape on her ankles and wrists with his tanto. "Psychosis, just take off her chakra-restriction seal. We're leaving."

"You won't help? I thought that you were of the ideal of helping the lesser fortunate." She muttered in a heartbroken tone.

He momentarily stopped, and gazed at her fully in the eyes. And there it was again. The somewhat painful, yet enjoyable sensation of metaphorically drowning in the rich brown of her orbs.

And Fate saw the look in his leader's face.

"Oh...fuck. He's a sucker for pretty girls."

Naruto sighed deeply; he realized that he was weary. Not tired, just fed up of all of Wave's events. "Let's help her guys. Hopefully, we'll live like the last time we helped someone and got caught up in the antagonism."

"I'd much rather not get nearly killed like when we helped Fu." Doc spoke up. He grabbed the girl's wrists, and she felt a cooling sensation there. Looking down at them, she realized that all of her discomforts she had there was gone. "You better fix my brother's arm, or so help me, I'll heal you to death."

"Is such a thing possible?"

"All of your white blood cells multiplying and created all at once and finally die out at relatively the same time, with none spawned for the future to defend a handicapped immune system. The white blood cells could also attack your red ones, and a simple thing as the common cold would kill you. Don't ask me again if such a thing is possible, and do as I tell you."

She formed a few ice senbon and stabbed Surge in the shoulder. But to some extent, or how eccentric one's thinking was, they'd think she stabbed him _gently_. Then she did it again in the side of his arm, and once again in his upper back.

"Ow!" The raiton clone yanked his hand back from her. "Oh, wow! It's fixed. But you only stabbed me in the shoulder the first time."

"It's far easier to break something than to fix it." She said simply.

"Yeah, happy all around, and all that shit." The one with the baton said crossly. "If this turns out badly, you're going to end up like the demon brothers. That is, a bloody mess on the ground. Got that?"

'These are his brothers? Only one of them so far actually acts like him, or close to it.' "Hai." She spoke aloud.

"Well, let's go save, or rather _help_ a demon who just lost his bite, huh?" Naruto remarked. "Anyone got a plan?"

"Rip shit up and don't die!" Psychosis yelled in a cheer.

"Just occupy most of the attention of at least some of the anbu," Fate suggested as an order. "While the troubled one retrieves the man's sword. It's obvious that he seeks it, but is unable to, for they give him no quarter. But our own survival is not guaranteed."

And with that said, Haku dashed off without warning.

"She's pretty brave, huh?" Surge stated.

"She's pretty. Period." Naruto said.

"I knew it." The assassination clone remarked. "You need to get a girl, and stop latching on the opposite sex in general for emotional leverage. Or one day, this kind of self-sacrificial behavior is going to cost you your life, and ours as well by your death's-extension."

They all ran off as well, and halfway to the anbu, Narburei dived beneath the surface while his brothers charged the anbu. Fate stopped as well, and started strafe running while loosing arrows at the remaining anbu who fought Zabuza. He wasn't surprised to see them dodge them or block them easily.

'Jounins.' He thought to the others. 'Caution would be prudent.'

'Just keep fighting, everyone.' Naruto tried to alleviate any nervousness and tension. 'We know that if we fail, these hunter nins will kill our team as well, and Gato will wipe out the family.'

Zabuza saw the five boys approaching him from behind in a general location, and one of them attacking the anbu with arrows. He briefly recollected seeing arrows peppering Gozu, and scowled underneath his bandages. 'What are they doing? This isn't their fight!' The man leapt to one side as an arrow flew through his space at the anbu who was sprinting to him straightly and caught him in the chest. Said nin collapsed apart into water that fell apart into the effects of the earlier **Exploding Water Shock Wave**.

"Oi! What are you doing?!"

"Helping." The boy drawled out. "The girl begged us to."

"Well, I don't want it!" Momochi yelled. "Where is she?!"

The boy pulled out another arrow from his quiver and used it to point at another fight going on between two of the jounin, the ice user and Naruto. "Over there." He then docked the arrow and released it, and chained a few more in succession in a bid to try to keep away two of the jounin. 'This guy is as short tempered as Narsensa. I can't really work with him.' Off to the far right, he could see Farsight and Narshokku more than fairly successful in holding the jounin's attention, and he was yet to see if that was a bad thing.

After he fired his arrows, he replaced his bow on his back and activated a storage seal in the quiver. As the seal burnt out, it relinquished its contents of twenty more of the pointed projectiles. He then created a dozen clones, and all readied themselves to release volleys. "Keep them away from Zabuza while Doc patches him up."

"Who patches me up?" Zabuza raised a non-existent eyebrow, and heard footsteps approach him from a blind spot to his right. Turning his head, he saw another of the boys walk up to him going through handseals before his hands lit up in a glowing green.

It was then he noticed that the boy had a crest over his heart, and something told him that a blue cross looked the part of a doctor; never mind the creepy uniform. Glancing at the one with the arrows, his crest depicted a man with a target over his head and chest. 'A team?' He allowed the boy to heal his wounds on his chest, arms, shoulders and his back where more than just weapons had scored hits on his person. The fact that he had both arms using an obvious **Shosen** meant that he worked twice as fast.

He was done in ninety seconds, amidst the projectile arrows flying all around the place, during which time, Momochi feared that he might become the victim of friendly fire.

"Here," the boy said suddenly, speaking for the first time as he held out a pill. "Take this."

"What the fuck is that for?"

"Take the damn blood pill. Now."

The man hesitated, before grabbing it from him. "It better not be poison."

"You'll have to take that chance. Just because your wounds are sealed doesn't mean you won't collapse from over-exertion because you had less than ten pints of blood. Or if you reopen them accidentally, and die from complete exsanguination; that is, death by blood loss." The boy said in monotone. "Either take it, or give it back so I'll give it to a later patient."

Zabuza took the pill.

 **=X=X= Naruto & Haku**

"You didn't mean that about becoming my slave, do you?! I find that very unsettling!" 'And a bit hot. But I don't need anyone knowing that.'

'We all heard you.' (x5) **"Well, brat, at least I know that you got a fetish for something. Blackmail to keep from your brothers."** Kurama added, as if he were passive for all that had happened thus far.

"Everyone, get the fuck outta my head!" Naruto yelled, before 'cutting' the mental connection. He turned to Haku, who looked as if she was going to answer him, despite his…episode.

"I did."

Naruto whistled nervously and awkwardly, before he noticed one of the pair of jounin going through a string of handseals and prepared himself.

" **Suiton: Daibakufu no jutsu**!" (Water Release: Great Waterfall technique)

Their eyes widened as they saw a large wave of water rise in front of the caster to what he believed was at the very least two dozen meters high; and was sent rolling forward at them to crash unto their location using brute force only. Naruto and Haku was forced to back up out of the way. _Far_ out of the way. As they kept on running, they strafed to the left to avoid getting caught up in the other fights. As they cleared the path of the jutsu, they met up right in the two jounin who were fully expecting them to dodge in that fashion.

Haku went through handseals quickly; an ice mirror formed behind her foe, as well as behind herself as well.

" **Haku no Hijutsu: Makyō Hyōshō**!" (Haku's secret jutsu: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals)

She leapt back into her own, and in a blur, went between the two mirrors akin to flash of lightning and maimed her opponent with senbon. To her disappointment, the anbu fell apart into water, an apparent water clone. If he had created it with the water they were standing on, then where was he?

She saw bubbles coming up from the surface between her feet, and leapt away as a water shark burst forth from her previous location and exploded. Now noting that he was under water, she dived under as well and used chakra to augment her fighting capabilities down there, especially that of propulsion.

Naruto, on the other hand, did not have that luxury, but it was unnecessary; he was fighting an actual opponent who could bleed. Well, if the gash he had scored on the man's gut was any indication. He hoped that it was mostly skill, and not luck because the man might have underestimated him. The tanto still in his grasp, he feinted with his left fist at the man's chest, then lunged at the neck.

The anbu realized that the feint was obvious; who in their right mind who believe that a person would attack first with a hand than a blade? As the man watched the anbu that they were trying to 'save' earlier create what looked like ice, he realized that he was looking at one of the remnants of the Yuki clan.

There were no bloodline holders among Yagura's forces. This person was an imposter.

Naruto stamped on the man's foot and stayed it there, and leapt upwards with a shoulder to his chin. The anbu marveled at the boy's speed and strength, but did not admire it. Instead, he pulled his foot back and backpedaled away from what would have been a stunning hit. Quickly, he decided to conserve his chakra from his earlier expenditure of the assisted **Caged Animal** and **Exploding Water Shock Wave** techniques, not to mention his solo creation of the **Great Waterfall** ; save his remaining chakra for the swordsman instead.

Pulling out his standard issue kodashi from its seal, he hacked with it at the boy's side with a horizontal slash, which the boy blocked by holding out his (reverse-gripped) tanto at a diagonal angle and allowed his foe's blade slide up to his hilt. He then pushed it away savagely, and tried to recreate a **Gokakyu** seallessly like the first time.

He wasn't nearly half that successful, but it was good enough to nearly burn the man's face off, had he not his mask on. But who's to say that the fire didn't nearly super-weld itself to his flesh, as well as toast his chest?

"Gah!" He raised his free hand and pulled it off his red and offended face. As it was pulled off, he was forced to substitute hastily with a log, just before the boy's weapon impacted his chest. Unfortunately, he had no idea where his own sword ended up. He glanced about, but didn't see it.

Well, he soon did. But it was a mere second, just before he had to dodge a slash from it.

Naruto had it in his left hand, and his tanto in his right. Although he was right hand dominant, he favored short thrusts with his tanto, as well as blocking. The kodashi was merely at this point useful for intimidation and the occasional parry of the man's kunai.

The anbu, risking getting his leg hacked off at the knee, kicked the boy in the gut with driving force. Going through three handseals, he slammed his palm into his chest and in that same instant, water flowed over Naruto and soon held him in a water prison.

The man smirked in satisfaction. Now, all he had to do was to wait out the brat's demise. He surely didn't have the lung capacity of an adult.

Naruto glared, before attempting to do something he had never tried before. Rather than call on his brothers to help, he tried to create shadow clones outside the water prison without using the cross handseal, since he could not move. He only succeeded in making one, but that was all he needed as the fabrication went up in a daibakuha.

The man was blown away from the force, and the water prison that was still up at the time protected Naruto from the initial beginning of the explosion. The man had gotten all the damage, when the Uzumaki only received less than a quarter. Before the man could fully recover from his stun and stand again properly, his kodashi was hacked right through his shoulder blades with Naruto's brute strength. Blood sprayed in a fine mist; it was obvious that Naruto had cut right through his subclavian artery and vein. They were large, high pressure vessels.

"Graah!"

The force behind the blade forced him to his knees, and Naruto quickly had his tanto again his right hand. With the kodashi still buried deeply in the man's collar, he drove the tanto through into his gut with the shaft forced upwards. He didn't stop there, as he pulled it out, and stabbed the man several times more in the gut and chest, particularly in his lungs and heart.

The man's screams of pain died down until it sounded like a small animal whimpering. Naruto stabbed the man with all his muscle and weight behind it through the man's right eye socket and straight through his skull on the other side. Ignoring all the blood that bled in a wash all over his clothing from the man, Naruto yanked his weapon out of the man's head and kneed him in the chin off of the kodashi. It was only then that the Uzumaki realized that the blade he had embedded in the man's half-shoulder and his frequent stabbings in his upper torso, was the only thing holding him upright in the water.

He flinched as he thought about his current physicality, but paid no mind to the deceased and supposed 'Professional' shinobi that now floated in the water, painting it crimson.

'I had no idea. I've been pushing my body to it's limits, and to think I was this strong or fast without the seal on. What should happen if I moved on from level four, to level six? Eight? Ten?'

" **Currently, from my observations, your muscles have been ripped to pieces and your bones have cracked."** Kurama stated. **"Were it not from my continuous healing and rejuvenation from the youki in your brothers, all of you would have already worn yourselves down to scraps and drowned in the water like rats. At least I have my question I asked months ago fully answered why they didn't use these seals on learners in the Academy. Maybe even the jounin as well wouldn't dare to use training like this, perhaps it's only really beneficial to Jinchuriki, like yourself. But who could have made it?"** The beast pondered, posing his musings to his host.

'This bloodline I have has extended my mental limits that bind normal people. Who's to say that it won't help me physically, like certain aspects of Reflex and Focus? I'm sure that there are more waiting to be developed.' Naruto argued.

" **True. In any case, Narburei has returned Zabuza's sword to him. From what I have seen, only four more jounin remain. Only you and Zabuza have killed one each."**

"How did he get the sword? He couldn't have swam with it, surely. He would be one-handed, and too weighed down." Naruto asked himself aloud.

" **Seals. He sealed it into a storage one on his arm, then swam to the surface, and then unsealed it when he was above."**

"That's actually pretty smart." Naruto said, proud of the Torture expert.

" **This may make you angry, but Narburei is actually the smartest of you lot. He's putting up a façade that would cause others to cast a hasty judgment of him being substandard or mentally ill."**

"I'm not angry." He remarked. Suddenly, his attention swerved to Haku, who had just emerged from under the water in a float belly-up; her clothing was raked into strips. She was bleeding freely from her wounds.

"Shit!" He dashed over to her side, and lifted her head. "Hey! Haku! Say something!"

The girl coughed up a few water and blood droplets that caught him in the face, but he didn't make an effort to wipe it off. "Water sharks…" She whispered urgently.

Self preservation is a core instinct, one that a person imbibes with their mother's milk. To save one's own life is absolute. However, as he was grasping her by the head, neck and shoulders to keep her from drowning, he felt the same…instinct. The same one that has always moved his body away from danger, but he knew not what it the danger actually was. It was 'Reflex.'

*!*

His hands were involuntarily pulled from Haku, and his legs tensed beneath him to get him ready to jump. Realizing that he was in danger in that split-second, he resisted with it all that he could, to grab the girl to carry her with him. The feeling that he might die if he didn't jump unhampered lit his mind on fire.

And his eyes as well.

"Graaah!" He clamped his eyes shut in and yelled through clenched teeth in agony, gripped the girl as hard as he could to suppress his reflexive movements to abandon her. Kurama sensed the boy's distress, but had no idea what could be happening, besides that of the alarm of imminent danger.

" **MOVE!"** Kurama yelled.

Her body was limp, but as soon as he opened his eyelids, he saw a stark bright grey outline of what could be dubbed as a massive shark swimming up to them from below with its maw opened wide. It was big enough to chomp them to pieces and shreds in a single bite, but Naruto swore that he was at his calmest at that very moment.

All possible scenarios at that point in time flashed through his mind in a single quarter-second, and Naruto relinquished his body's control over to his mind unwillingly as it took over when it showed him the possibilities. But it did not curse him, as he hoped it wouldn't.

The best possible choice indicated a string of events that needed to take place. He needed to:

-Let Haku go.

-Cut chakra flow to his legs.

-Let himself fall beneath the surface and swim down to meet the shark half-way.

-Focus as much chakra to his arms to augment strength.

And so he did all of those in a single second, following his mind's orders.

As he sank beneath the surface, he looked down as he saw the massive maw of the shark opened wide to swallow him whole as it swam up to him in a rush. The shark angled itself diagonally to catch him sideways, and Naruto pulled his arms back to ready the hardest double-fisted strike he had ever made in his short life.

-Beat the shit out of the snout to unsettle the chakra that ran through it.

The shark was almost upon him, and rather than let it take his life, he took its own first by slamming the snout with his practically chakra-glowing fists. The snout gave in with alarming malleable submission in concession to his might.

But it was truly a pity that the shark wasn't just a regular water shark. It was a product of the **Water Shark Bullet Technique** , one of an explosive kamikaze nature.

Suddenly, self-preservation was no longer a choice, as the shark exploded with him at distance zero.

 **And that's a wrap.**

 **It's been a while since I wrote a cliffhanger. I'm just sitting here, drinking coffee and typing, and suddenly, it came to me. I figured that it would be beneficial if I… well, you're not blind. You can see what I just did, in black and white. If you didn't see it…well then, I feel sorry for you.**

 **Yes, the jutsu is just the shark. No one's inside it, like how Kisame once did his. Shortly before he killed himself, that is.**

 **Overall, this chapter could have gone a lot better. I'm not that good at writing fight scenes. I'd much rather write drama. Pity that sucks to some extent too. I'll try to continue the fight into next chapter, and it will conclude the Wave Arc.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading, adding to follows, favorites and been with me for so long, unless you're a newcomer. (With your views this week, the total viewership will crest 100k) Don't forget to review, if you found something you want to comment on. I'd appreciate some criticism on what I need to fix, or any facts that don't make sense or don't apply to the ninja world, and vice-versa.**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	28. Chapter 28

**Breaking Limits**

 **This is supposedly the last chapter to conclude the Wave Arc. Well, this is…kinda…**

… **Wrapping up the conflict.**

 **Within the start of the next one will be the final resolution, as well their leave. By the way, thumbs up to ReaptheSouls who became the 500** **th** **follower. Thanks a lot people. Aren't y'all glad you made it past the slow starting chapters when others gave up? I really should go back to chapter one and put up a warning.**

 **Oh well.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I own this computer I type my fics on. I own my cell-phone on which I proofread the chapters on after copying them to it via a USB cable. I own my email address that I email my chapters to from my phone. I own my cash, with which I purchase just enough usage time in an internet café to download the chapters there, read through them once more, then update them on the site.**

 **That's the process. My actual computer doesn't have internet (too many bugs and un-updated), and everything pretty much relies on my phone, and data-plans with which I keep in contact with you all. Admirable** _ **my**_ **tenacity is, isn't it? Gives you all something to think about…**

 **28.**

"That's one!" Zabuza yelled. "Oi, brats! The one with the most heads wins!"

"…You have a head start, but I accept your challenge." Fate said in a monotone with a half-smirk under his mask.

Psychosis shook his head. 'And they call me dumb and crazy? If only they knew…I...may have garnered the most of Naruto's emotional instabilities than the others, but I'm also burdened as an over-thinker. Acting up is a good distraction…if only it wasn't humiliating at times.' "Lemme at 'em!"

"Wait," Surge spoke up. "There were six jounin; Momochi killed one, I heard Naruto kill one over the mental line, and they're three here, where's the last one?"

"Must be under water." The torture clone figured. He knelt down in the water and stuck his head down beneath like an ostrich and looked around. 'I don't see him…hold on…um…guys?'

"I sense their presence." Farsight said out loud. "Everyone…caution. There are a whole lot of water sharks swimming about down below-"

And then all felt/heard a muffled explosion, one that created large waves over to where Haku and Naruto were fighting, but by the time they reached they themselves, they were ankle-high ripples. "What the hell was that? It's coming from over on Naruto's end."

"Must be an explosive tag." Fate stated.

"If it exploded below the water, and created ripples like that to over here, must be at least B ranked." Narburei suggested.

And all of this happened in between fighting, running, dodging and the general throwing of weapons. It came off as a fairly normal conversation, but they presumed that occurrences like this **were** normal.

Was that a good thing, or a bad one?

 **=X=X=**

He was in paradise. He was in torment.

His body held no weight, but his burdens were heavy.

There were millions of end outcomes for the final chapters…nine million, seven hundred and sixty-five thousand, six hundred and twenty-five, to be exact.

What, how and why did he know that?

It all came back to five, and five multiplied by that.

What?

Five and twenty-five?

What does that mean?

His eyes burned. His mind was alit. His body was on fire. Was this really paradise for the dead? Was it actually the opposite?

There were an infinite number of outcomes…and yet, he knew the most likely of which could happen. As in the first nine million most likely to happen. If he counted all the outcomes leading up to that, he would have had over ten million.

Wow.

His mind ceased its lecture of himself that he knew that he understood, but his previous state still hampered his final grasping of the lesson. It was all dark to him, and somehow, he knew what was going on. He wasn't dead, if he was in pain. But the pain couldn't have possibly occurred from the-

And he suddenly felt like he broke the surface of something, and he gasped for breath.

"*GASP*! *PANT* *PANT* PANT*!" His eyes exploded open, and he took in all that he could see as his head turned around. Strange. Everything seemed normal, but so many things looked…odd…

Why were there silver outlines around so many things? Why-

"*CHOKE*" He coughed up water repeatedly, and finally, 'Focus' came back in full force, as well as 'Understanding' and 'Memory'. He hadn't felt so befuddled and…insightful at the same time. "Hmm. Let's see. I was fighting, Haku got hurt, I went under water, tried to beat up on an explosive shark, the thing blew up on me, and I floated belly up, where I fully woke up. Yeah. That's it." He raised a hand to his forehead, where he tried to stroke it alleviate his headache- the one that seemed to set his skull on fire. "Damn, that shark has a wicked explosive. But how did I live?"

" **If I told you, you'd never believe it."**

"Huh? Kurama?"

" **I'm sitting here in the mindscape, yelling for you to 'move', 'do something', and all of a sudden, it's like your mind became an entity of itself, and moved your body on its own. Like you were your own spectator. A bit like me, per say."**

"What…the fuck are you talking about?!" Naruto yelled as he tried to force chakra to his legs, but failed. "What the…I'm out of chakra? How does **that** even happen?!"

" **Shut the fuck and let me finish."** The beast answered shortly. **"You got a new ability. I'll get into that later. I'm telling you what happened, so listen."**

Naruto nodded mentally, and the Kyuubi accepted it. **"It's almost like you predicted the future. Well, not quite like that, but you were prepared for it. That new ability of yours told you what to do, and since you practically gave over control to it, it controlled you like this 'Reflex' thing you've got for months now."**

"Uh huh. Go on."

" **You followed a plan of action, the one that was the most likely to succeed, and that indeed was what happened. The plan told you how to save the girl and destroy the shark. But after a certain** **number of steps, I believe-"**

"Excuse me for butting in, but I have to say something about that," Naruto remarked in an apologetic tone. "It feels like just before I woke up, I kept hearing references to 'five' and 'twenty-five' in my head."

" **Yes. Five."** Kurama admitted. **"Although your ability planned ahead to the fifth step, you still weren't exactly prepared for the explosion. So it 'told' your 'Reflex' ability as a last ditch effort to do whatever it took to keep you alive, or at the very least, negate some of the blast damage. And 'Reflex' responded by pulling almost all of your remaining chakra from your reserves to apparently cover the front of your body like a sort-of makeshift shield, like another skin. Hence why you feel like shit, why you were knocked out, stunned, and above all, chakra-less. Mind's fast and knows what to do for its own good. Unlike you, from time to time."**

Naruto whistled weakly, before groaning. "So what do I do then, huh? Swim home?"

" **There are two remedies. One half-assed one that's quick, or a slow one that's safe. The quick one is me converting my chakra along with your pure yang to create chakra. It'll be hasty, and put you out of it until your chakra is once again created the right way. The slow one is still me trying to create your chakra for you, but it'll be slower as I try to filter out any and all 'impurities' from my youki. Get it?"**

"Yeah. I should think so."

" **Well, I suggest you make up your mind quick. Either you take your pick, use the feral state, or be maimed by the dozens of water sharks swimming around in this Kami-damned fish tank of a jutsu."**

"Half-assed." Naruto spoke up all-too-quickly. He instantly felt himself feel rejuvenated, but it still felt as awkward as Kurama had put it. It was almost as if he was dehydrated, but to quench it, he had drunk oily water. It works, but gave one the feeling that they were going to be sick, without actually throwing up. "Ugh. That feels downright nasty and-"

" **The girl is still out of commission. I suggest you make yourself useful."** **'Hell yes, time for some drama.'**

Naruto face-palmed himself with a wet hand and channeled chakra to his legs and his back in decent measure. The water below him now felt moderately like solid ground and he leaned up, before standing shakily. He still felt weak from his earlier stun, but he shrugged it off fairly successfully. "Alright," The Uzumaki muttered. "My to-do list. One, get to Haku. Two, get to my brothers and finish fighting the remaining anbu. Hmm…maybe I should have used the feral state, but that takes too much of a toll on my body as a side-effect. Three, figure out what's wrong with my eyesight. Four, finish the mission. Five, go back home and sleep for a month."

" **Your eyes?"**

Naruto finished rousing himself. He still felt a bit nauseous, but he knew that was only a small side-effect…one he could still fight with. "Hai. My eyes." He looked around and saw silver outlines around quite a few things but knew not what it meant. "Know anything about it?"

" **I'm only now seeing the changes. Dear Kami, I hope it's not the sharingan, 'cause if it is, I'll kill you from the inside out. I don't care that you're my jinchuriki…I would do it, you know. I want to see it; look into your reflection."** Kurama ordered.

The blond only felt a small amount of needless worry, never mind that his abilities were so strange that even a farfetched link to the Uchiha dojutsu could be possible. He was slightly fearful for anything with passing resemblance lest he actually gets punished wrongfully, but he did as the Kitsune asked. He knelt down again and gazed into his reflection in the water. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that there was an absence of red, but there was a fully black sclera for a background. Definitely not like the red sharingan background, he was sure. But-

"What the hell…is _that_?"

" **I haven't the foggiest. First time I'm seeing it. But somehow, it looks familiar. I can't quite place it. Looks simple, and yet…hmm, at least the silver part of it matches your bandanna and sandals."** The Kyuubi said in jest. **"But it looks like a silver dot where your pupil should be, and five silver spokes coming off of it that extends to the boundaries of your eyes. Hell, if your eye was circular instead of a basic oval, I'd say this design would look exactly like a cartwheel."**

"Sounds about right." Naruto grunted. "It doesn't feel like it's draining my chakra, and I already saw things different when you said I was at zero."

" **For the life of me, I** _ **know**_ **this design. But where have I seen it?"** Kurama wondered out loud. **"I'm going to lose a lot of sleep over this, 'cause I'm going to remember if it kills me!"**

"Never mind that!" Naruto yelled out loud. "Let's just put that on the back burner for now." He stood up and looked around. As far as he could tell, it was as if his new eyes were outlining things of interest with silver boundaries, like someone traced around a drawing heavily with a luminous marker. "Hmm. Cool. Hold on…" He looked at everything once again and saw the others normally, save for Zabuza's blade plainly visible with the grey in the distance in the man's hand, while the weapons of the others seem to be like grey toothpicks. He also saw Haku still floating, and she had an outline as well. A glance below the water and he realized that below him he could see the shining silver outlines of water sharks, a few of which seemed to currently be heading for him. "Shit."

Once again, millions of outcomes coursed through his mind in the quarter of a second and he grinned. "Whoa. I see what it's doing. I'm a genius!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs. "I used to be an idiot. Then I became more knowledgeable. Then smarter. Now, I am prepared for millions of eventualities. And more keeps on coming every split second. Me, taken by surprise during the heat of conflict? NEVER AGAIN!" He roared.

 **=X=X=**

She took a shuddering breath as she gazed up into the sky.

She could tell that she was injured, and the remains of her chakra were low…she had been keeping up the mist with Gozu all of last night and quite a bit of the day before. By all means, she had an hour for a power-nap and she had been running on **that** for more than thirty-six hours. When it was all boiled down, she was dangerously close to chakra exhaustion, and very tempted to just fall asleep.

Even when she knew that she was currently floating belly-up in water-shark infested waters, even as she was bleeding freely from when a water shark had raked her belly when she had tried to dodge it earlier during her time beneath the water.

She should have had better tactics, but she was only trying to conserve her chakra for any other fighting. In hindsight, it really was a downright _stupid_ idea to try and fight a shark beneath the water with nothing but senbon and a few of her lesser powerful ice techniques. Although she knew that the snout was the weakest point and she was able to destroy sharks by un-regulating the chakra with the senbon to said snout, she had, in the heat of the moment, forgotten that propulsion force was significantly reduced under water. She couldn't really _throw_ her senbon while under water. A terrible mistake, but at least she still got rid of the shark. At the cost of her being wounded that is.

"Zabuza-sama's going to chew me out for being a failure of a tool. Again." She muttered. Once again, she tried to rear up the vestiges of her chakra to form a **Shosen** , but only succeeded in closing up the wounds a little more, before it flickered out. 'Well, at the very least, I have more time before I bleed to death…'

She looked to her left and saw Naruto apparently yell to himself about twenty meters away, but the sound of it was muffled, due to the fact that her ears were sub-surface. She could only watch interestedly as he threw what seemed to be a bomb-tagged kunai in the air straight up with decent strength, and then create two clones, one on each side.

'What is he doing? The kunai-bomb could fall on his own location.' She mused. In an effort to see better, rather than just using her peripherals, she tried to lean her head upwards so she could turn her head without having one side submerged. She could only keep that up for a few seconds before she let her head fall again, and had to go the originally standby of having her face half submerged; her left side, that is, and gazed only from her right eye, now seeing all from that one.

His two clones created a fireball using both Katon and Futon and send it hurtling towards their far left. It took a water shark that just broke the surface in the face and the thing was destroyed, mainly from the fact that it had lost its entire upper half of its body to the potent heat.

'He can use futon? Hmm. So he definitely uses katon, and futon. His brother must be the one with the raiton…'

The two clones that started running forward, straight at an incoming shark that was made obvious by the visible dorsal fin. The water shark then broke the surface and just as its jaws opened agape to chomp down on the clones, they as well tackled its mouth and exploded in fiery conflagration that nearly instantaneously turned the water beast into steam.

'Wow. But what about the bomb-'

Naruto seemingly hesitated, before he leapt backwards, only a split-second before a shark emerged from below his location straight up. The shark had such driving power that it flew up around ten meters in the air, and in that same frame, Naruto sank beneath the water, apparently by cutting the chakra flow to his soles.

The beast was still airborne with its maw open when the paper-bombed kunai landed straight into the creature's mouth, and exploded in a gush of water all over. A few seconds after all was said and done, Naruto seemed to climb back out of the water as if he were climbing out of a pit on a ladder.

The ice user could only stare with her right eye fully wide. 'What? Why…How did he…' She sighed as she gave up. This boy was full of nothing but surprises.

 **=X=X=**

"Five steps, huh? First, hurl a kunai with a bomb tag straight up around fifty meters up for the right hang time, then two, form a fire clone and a wind clone…"

" **Three, send a ball of hell justice at the left shark. Four, the clones tackle the forward shark and explode…"**

"And five, let the underwater shark try eat a kunai-bomb that just so happened to fall into its mouth as it came up."

" **Kekkei Genkai. While most have physical aspects, and others have mental aspects, I must say, I respect yours. So long as it doesn't have some sort of hypnosis ability on tailed beasts, I think it's my favorite. Not that there was a competition, of course."**

"Recap." Naruto answered with a nod. "I understand problems perfectly. I cannot forget anything, even if it was done at a glance. I cannot miss, and my body and mind adapts quickly. I can dodge and counter attacks I may not even know were occurring in the first place. Now, it seems like I may now be something of a battle genius, millions of tactics and endgames coursing through my mind, as well as a certain level of battle predictions given by all factors seen. As some perquisite to the same eyes, everything of current interest is outlined, weapons, jutsus, as well as potential combatants."

" **Hai, hai. It's possible that it could evolve, like those Uchihas' eyes. But for now, I can say that you're about as dangerous on a battlefield as a Kage. All you really need to back it up is a wider variety of jutsu, a better grasp on your jinchuriki capabilities and… and…"** Kurama trailed off. **"Damn. I'm going to have one kick-ass container. And now that you can differentiate between friend and foe, as well as plot battles in split-seconds, I can tell that you're going to live long."**

"You really think so?" Naruto asked eagerly.

" **Yeah, live longer despite all the sacrificial shit you tend to do, get some real ambition, start a family, and spoil the grandkids, the usual…"**

"Start a family?"

" **Yeah. Start with that ice user, maybe. You seem to already be infatuated with her-"**

"Nope!" The Uzumaki declared hastily. "Don't know what you're talking about." He looked around for her again and saw her outline. Without further ado and ignoring his Tailed Beat's remarks about how he should mount her, he made his way to the injured girl.

…

…

…

"Well, you look terrible."

She smiled as she coughed. "I believe your brother said you were a sucker for pretty girls. I'm no longer one?"

Naruto fought down a potential face-reddener and tried to answer as best he could, waving her comment down as something farcical. "Calm down. You're still my enemy." He knelt down and lifted her up bridal style. "I suppose the best place to put you down would be on the roof."

"I could still cut your throat at this angle," she commented casually. "And what happened to your eyes? They look…weird…"

"For the record, I'm prepared for the eventuality of you trying, or even becoming 'successful' in cutting my throat." The Uzumaki said coolly. "As for my eyes, I think I like the design, 'kay?"

"Well, _I_ think I prefer your blue ones."

"Aw, now you're a sucker for **my** good looks." He remarked smugly.

"…Don't fool yourself."

He made it to the roof in a hurry and walked to the dead center of it. There, he rested his human burden as best he could and knelt beside her. "So what now, huh? Your wounds, Zabuza, the dozens of sharks I had to outrun to get you here need to be disposed of…hmm…priorities, priorities…"

She cocked up her head to look at him. "Did I not hear you call one of your brothers 'Doc'? Is he a doctor, by any chance?"

"Well, he is…sorta…" He thought of Narishi's demeanor and frowned. "Really bossy, hard to get along with sometimes, but yeah. He can patch you up. I'd do it myself, but my reserves feel like they're on a pendulum in a clock. It took a lot of control and more than enough chakra just to create my two clones that made the **Gokakyuu no jutsu** and to walk on water. I don't think you'd want me to do a **Mystical Palm** on you. Risks, as you can tell."

"Call him please." Haku begged. "I'm bleeding out." She stared at him stupidly as he remained still for another minute, each second more urgent than the last. "Well? Won't you do it?"

"I called him already."

"What? You haven't moved an inch-"

"Sorry I took so long." A new voice said suddenly. Haku shifted her head and boggled at the sight of one of the boys who had arrived, approaching from her blind-spot. "I had to dodge a whole lot of sharks."

"I know what you mean, Doc." Naruto answered. "If this roof wasn't metallic, I would have said 'everyone haul ass to here while Surge, you electrocute everything that decided to go against the rule of 'No swimming'.'

Doc nodded as he looked down at her. "So…this girl, huh?"

"You gonna help her or what?"

"Slow and steady for no scarring. Give me five minutes, instead of the usual ninety seconds." Doc said plainly before his hands lit up in a green glow. Naruto nodded, and left the two on the roof.

'Five minutes? With a little luck, this will be over in a five step plan.'

 **=X=X= Two minutes later**

"Damn, boss, what the hell is with 'em fancy new eyes? Do we get that?" Psychosis yelled. "You just," He gave an exaggerated grunt. "Killed that anbu guy just like that."

"He played right into my trap." Naruto said in monotone. "As for my latest ability, I don't know if you guys will manifest it."

" **Probably not. Clones are made with your most up-to-date looks and abilities. As of now, the rest of the Thirteen are developing at a tangent. Naruto is now unique in his own ways now, not just a jack-of-all-trades as I believe I heard him tell Fu back in the savanna."** Kurama said to all of the T13 members currently in the vicinity. **"He had a bit of an identity crisis with that issue, but now, he should be fine."**

'I had no such problem.' The Uzumaki retorted.

" **I am aware of all thoughts that you voice, and most of your subconscious ones."**

'That sounds…intrusive,' the blond observed in thought awkwardly. Naruto threw six shuriken at one of the anbu and said hunter Nin dodged by leaping to the side but had mistakenly traipsed into the path of an arrow that took him in the back, loosed seconds before he even thought of even dodging. It was right in the location of his heart, and the anbu suddenly charged at Zabuza. "Heads up, Momochi! Probably a suicide bomber."

"How would you know?!" The man yelled back.

"I've got a brain the size of Iron Country. I _think_ I should know what I'm talking about."

"Take him down!" Fate yelled. He released more arrows, but even as they took root in the jounin's back, making him a resemblance to a porcupine, but he still ran at the ex-swordsman dead on. He was soon tackled in the side by a clone made by Farsight, dashing towards him at full speed. As they both fell, the clone went off in a Daibakuha and both exploded in fantastic and powerful display of chakra-white and fire-orange visuals that knocked everyone away in a measure of meters by the initial shock-wave.

It was stunning as everyone clambered back unto their feet and resumed dodging water sharks that continued to plague the waters. "Seriously, what the hell is up with these sharks?!" Psychosis yelled. "I only see one Anbu guy here, ten are dead, and the last one missing! Wha-…" The Torture specialist trailed off. "Oh. I see. The missing one is below the water creating the sharks. But he hasn't even surfaced yet. How come he hasn't drowned?" He asked to no one.

Zabuza though, seemed to have an answer. "I used to work with a Hoshigaki, a fellow swordsman. He had this...mutation that gave him gills so he could breathe under water. I doubt that the Nin under water right now's him, but it's possible he has the mutation as well."

"This guy has a bloodline and he's on the Mizukage's side?" Naruto asked.

"No." Momochi growled as the last anbu seemed to have been considering the idea of retreat, but was currently being chased by all remaining who at the same time, dodging shark attacks. "It was an induced mutation during the time of growing up. Like a curse. There's nothing 'bloodline' about it." He finally caught up to the fleet-footed hunter Nin, and liberated his upper torso from his lower half.

"Oh Kami, I think I'm going to throw up." Surge spoke, eyeing the bloody and grisly spectacle.

"Don't," Naruto warned. "Cause if you do, I might vomit from seeing it. I'm still feeling a little queasy. But I can handle the blood...I've seen it for most of my life."

The water level and sharks were still at their optimum number and height, and this confused Narburei. "It took all twelve to do the first two landscape-changing techniques. Nothing changed."

"We have to kill the last guy to release the effects, I reckon," Fate intoned. "The only problem is; anyone who even thinks of taking a dive under water is going to be ripped to pieces."

Naruto wasn't really listening. Instead, his eye had caught a new silver outline on the high wall created by the **Caged Animal Technique** and it descended into the water. 'What is that?'

'What's what?' The others asked in multiple in their thoughts.

'I just saw something go into the water. Now it's moving under the water…' Naruto trailed off. 'I don't believe it…'

'What?!'

"Fight's over." Naruto now said as if he were stating a fact. "We won."

"How…who…" Psychosis stuttered. "What the **fuck** are you talking about?! We're still having to dodge as if our lives depend on it, cause if we stay still for a second, we're going to die-"

"You don't have to, anymore." Naruto said as he stopped running around. The others were about to question his sanity when the jutsus began to recede back down to ground level. The water did before the walls, and at six feet high, they all saw something sticking up out of the ground.

At five feet, they saw it was a face.

At four feet, breasts.

At three feet, contoured hips.

Two feet, legs.

One foot, feet.

At zero feet, all stared at Kurenai who stood beside a corpse that had its throat cut from ear to ear, as if she was unfazed at her own deed. "Good morning, all."

Naruto re-covered his eyes and face with the hood of his clothing and stalked up to her; fighting the urge to punch her in the gut. "Why, I ought to take that pleasantry and ram it down your throat-"

"Douitashimashite."

Naruto sighed deeply. "Ugh. Arigatou. Although I'm sure that we could've handled it by ourselves."

The woman smirked. "We didn't have all day."

Naruto grinned wryly, but she couldn't see it. "All I needed was a split second. All you really did was steal my spotlight."

 **=X=X=**

"Keep fighting, damn it!" Tazuna yelled. As a crook collapsed next to him, he and Inari started kicking the downed man to make sure he stayed there. However, the younger was pulled back by his mother who continued to yank him to the back of the cave. "There's sure a lot of 'em!"

Hinata, currently, wasn't being delicate, nor were Shino's insects just trying to drain chakra. The girl's fist was anything but gentle as she forced her chakra through organs, and the boy's kikaichu were roving wildly, settling over the locations of important arteries and veins in necks and chewing holes in the vessels. Perhaps at the end, one could say that all bandits who bled to death was Shino's doing, and all 'clean' kills were Hinata's.

"Woo!" Tazuna cheered. "I'm nearly shitting my own trousers, but I've never felt more alive! Damn, I should have become a ninja!"

"Tou-san!" Tsunami chastised as she threw one of Kaiza's weighted nets over the front entrance of the cave where the bandits were forcing entry. "Are you saying you want to kill for money? No offense, Hinata-chan, Shino-kun."

"None taken." Shino bit out as he threw a kunai that embedded itself in a machete-wielding crook. "This period is actually a time of my first killings. Why? I have never killed before on my individual action, although my kikaichu have done so already…"

"I'm not killing anyone!" The bridge-builder yelled from behind a pile of unconscious bandits. As one passed him unawares, he stuck his foot out and tripped the man. As the man fell, Tazuna got up and quickly curb-stomped the poor bastard on the head, breaking out a few of his teeth. "I'm enjoying beating up on people, and getting away with it!" He then started kicking the man in his ribs as the man screamed. "You're never too old to beat up on a young 'un, my father used to tell me."

Hinata shook her head as she ducked a horizontal hammer swing and lunged forward with hands forward, blasting chakra into the man's gut. The hammer-toting man coughed up a large amount of blood that the girl had the presence of mind to steer clear from, before the man toppled unto his face. "I still don't approve of this."

"You're killing as we speak!" Tazuna shouted. Another crook got past the two genin at the front who fought amidst growing piles of men and made for him. Before he could reach him and chop him with his rusted machete, Tazuna picked up a rock on the ground and hurled it like a shot-put at the man's face, shattering the face construction and knocked the man out. If he woke up, he'd probably scream his head off, if it wasn't practically half-off already. "Damn, I'm getting good at this! Let in another of the bastards!"

"It's not our intention." Shino muttered. "Why? It would put your life at risk." He pulled out three shuriken from his weapons pouch and threw them at the closest three bandits. He could feel his muscles aching, and his body getting tired. He shouldn't have been so active, seeing that he was still recuperating from his recent poisoning, but he had had no choice when the first of the bandits had shown up.

"How did they even find us?" Inari wondered out loud. He saw a bandit apparently come to, and yanked himself from his mother's grasp to a corner, where he grabbed a rather sturdy oar. Needing no further prompting, nor heeding his mother's worried yells, he started beating the bandit about the head, neck and chest until he fell from consciousness again.

"Good job!" Tazuna cheered. He hurriedly grabbed his now quarter-full bottle of saki and took a swig from it. "My grandson, bless him; can defend himself!"

"Look out!" Tsunami screamed. She watched a short and stout bandit almost come upon him with a hatchet but the older man turned just in time and whacked the man over the head with the bottle, shattering it.

The broken pieces of the bottle decimated the flesh of the man's bald head, and the alcohol ran into his eyes. As he screamed bloody murder, Tazuna kicked the man in the jewels. The man's scream increased in pitch as he fell to his knees, where the elder then kicked the man in the stomach with all of his strength with a forward-toe kick. All screaming ceased as the man clutched his gut and fell on his side, where Tazuna started kicking him again. "What a waste of good Saki. That kid that was with Naruto gave it to me. Too bad he disappeared in smoke." The man mused out loud. "How does something like that happen?"

"If only Sensei was here." Shino said in a monotone. "We would have a better fighting chance."

"If only _Naruto-kun_ was here." Hinata corrected. "He's a one man army, and has clones who can heal people."

Shino stared at the girl, before resuming his fighting. "…That's true," he admitted. "I have a bomb tag. Perhaps the explosion could tell the others that we are in need of aid. I'm almost out of weapons, my body tires and my kikaichu are weary."

"I'm running out of chakra to supplement my fighting style as well, and my byakugan shows me dozens more of these…despicable people." Hinata replied in a huff. She palmed a man who had brought only a knife to fight with directly in the chest, but she herself had gotten nicked. One of her growing number of close shaves that took a toll on her, as well as her teammate. Their tiredness would soon cost them dearly. "Do it!"

The Aburame nodded before removing the tag from his pouch, primed it on a kunai, and hurled it out into the crowd of the still advancing bandits at the back. Sure, it would kill quite a few and stun a few more, but as Hinata had said…there were dozens of them…practically a small army.

 **=X=X=**

"Well, this mission has been a load of shit. I still blame you for most of that, Momochi."

"You got a fair point with that, woman."

Yuhi was about to retort, but decided not to. She wasn't talking to an ordinary ninja, and besides, if she wasn't a woman, then who was she? He didn't know her name anyway, so it was also fairly excusable.

"At least you didn't lose people. My associates, the Demon Brothers have been killed."

"We take responsibility for that." Fate and Farsight spoke up in admittance.

"But in case they weren't, you know, **dead** …I kinda made sure that they were." Surge said in an apologetic tone. "Gomen. But you were all trying to kill us. You wouldn't have cared if it were us who perished."

Haku finally sat up after taking a blood pill from the Doc. "So what happens now?"

"I say we go midget hunting." Zabuza growled. "It had been a long time since someone screwed me over, and if there's one thing I'm not, it's a pushover who takes other people's shit."

"HELL YES!" Psychosis cheered as he fist-pumped excitedly. "OPEN SEASON ON SHORT BASTARDS!"

"Wouldn't you fall in that category, loud mouth?" Kurenai asked.

" **Short…bastards**. I'm at a fair height for my age, and I ain't a bastard. I'm safe, but _thanks_ _for_ _your_ _concern_." Narburei shot back condescendingly.

The woman was about to cast a genjutsu on the boy who dared to get cheeky with her when they all heard a distant explosion. "Hmm?"

"Sounds like it came from the cave in direction. Could be fighting going on there." Naruto spoke up. "We should go check it out."

The swordsman groaned. "Must be your teammates, no? I'll come with you. But only to chop up more people."

Naruto nodded as if in understanding before turning to Haku, who had ingested another pill; a soldier one. "Is he always like this?" He whispered discretely.

She spat to one side to get rid of the taste before she nodded. "Unfortunately, yes." 'Ugh, I could never get used to the taste of chakra-pills.'

 **=X=X=**

"They're coming, right?" Tazuna shouted. "I'm startin' to feel my age!"

"I'm confident that that they are," Shino muttered, before he grabbed another boat oar to fight with- he was out of ninja tools. "Hinata, I suggest you fight with one of these common fishing tools. You're merely stunning people briefly at this point."

"I don't have the muscle for extensive use for the large oars, Shino." The Hyuuga turned sideways to dodge a thrown hatchet before she picked up another one from a fallen crook. "This seems…brutish, don't you think?"

"You'd better abandon the Hyuuga principle for internal damaging if you want to actually survive long enough for help to arrive." The Aburame stated simply, before swinging the paddle of his oar at an adversary's temple, bludgeoning him into unconsciousness.

She was about to retort that it was _her_ principle when she had to backpedal to avoid getting killed by a swung pick-axe. In a small fit of a non-thinking state, she flung the hatchet like one would a throwing knife and it hacked into the chest of the man who nearly killed her. She, however, didn't have time to regret it as a white explosion suddenly occurred a bit too close to the mouth of the cave, and knocked herself and Shino out with its concussive force.

" **Well, it's a free for** all," Psychosis yelled. "All of you are on one kill each, except for Zabuza on two; Naruto, Fate and Farsight on three. Haku and I are the only ones who ain't 'blooded' yet! Let's go, girl!"

"We're making a sport of killing?" Haku asked with disgust. "I want no part of this."

"Me neither." Surge said in accordance. "Can we still get a pass?"

Farsight grumbled heatedly as he waved his hand at the two of them in annoyance. "Fine. Take a goddamn pass, you and the girl. Just…make sure the others in the cave are okay, or something. My daibakuha to take out some of the force there might've hurt 'em or stunned them. And for the record…" He smirked beneath his mask. "The explosion killed four."

"Don't worry, brat." Zabuza growled. "There are dozens left. Don't get comfortable with your puny head start."

"…Hmm… I counted sixty-seven who're still standing." Naruto piped up suddenly. "Oh…look-ee here at the short guy at the back of them all, drinking wine as if he's a king or something. He must have a lot of money to have these men on his payroll, not to mention those already down or out at the entrance for the cave."

"Neutralize the highwaymen and crooks, and save Gato for last," Narburei stated with full clarity. "It'll be hard on his confidence…and his psyche." They had all reached the entrance of the cave from the side by now, and stared down the army of thieves. Said thieves were staring back at a female Leaf jounin with an icy glare, a girl who looked disgusted with them, six boys with feral-masks that scared the piss out of them and the Demon of the Hidden Mist who scared the shit out of those with full bowels. Although the girl and one of the boys went inside the cave may have _very slightly_ increased their odds of fleeing and escaping, their hearts fell when one of the boys (Psychosis) yelled that the 'person with the most kills wins'.

…

…

…

Zabuza was chopping people up in bifurcation, Farsight was bashing heads in with his baton, Fate was firing arrows aimed for eyes and chests, Doc was cutting throats at the jugular and carotid arteries and veins, Kurenai killed people like an invisible specter, Naruto who used a tanto in one hand and a baton in the other, and last but not least; Psychosis who was giggling while using a garden fork he picked up to skewer people.

…

…

…

Narishi and Haku was healing everyone who had obtained battle-damage, Psychosis was hog-tying Gato with duct-tape and Naruto was arguing with Zabuza.

"It's easy. Kurenai-sensei cut throats like my brother did, but he slits throats only over the blood-vessels, while she only used common slashes. So, by all means, to know the kills, you look on the injuries. Your kills are the easiest to mark; for Kami's sake, you halved people."

"I want to see a tally." The swordsman growled.

Naruto quickly took a soft white-stone and marked out the border lines on the side of the cave. He wrote in the names to label them, before he sent a clone to count for each person. After a word from Surge about the bodies at the front of the cave, he had clones count the Gentle Fisted, Kikaichu'd, and surveys done with Tsunami who was merely a spectator, he added those kills too. When he was done, he wrote in the number for each person.

Zabuza: 2 anbu, 17 bandits

Kurenai: 1 anbu, 8 bandits

Naruto: 3 anbu, 12 bandits

Psychosis: 6 bandits

Doc: 1 anbu, 5 bandits

Surge: 1 anbu

Farsight: 1 D. brother, 2 anbu, 12 bandits

Fate: 1 D. brother, 2 anbu, 11 bandits

Shino: 15 bandits

Hinata: 7 bandits

Tazuna: 1 bandit

Haku: 0

Unsure: 11

Psychosis scowled beneath his mask. "Damn-it-all! Too much kill-stealing was going on. Especially with that damn meat-cleaver the swordsman kept swinging around. I mean, even Hinata killed more than me before we came, for Kami's sakes! What's up with that?!"

"I didn't join this competition." Kurenai pointed out. "I was merely doing my job. Unlike the rest of you barbarians. Well, except for the girl. She didn't take part in that madness."

"I'm actually proud of that!" The Yuki yelled. "Killing is vile!"

"Never mind her," Zabuza spoke while gloating. "I got the most. I win."

"Hold on, Momochi." Naruto retorted. "I killed _three_ anbu. I think one of that is worth some bandit kills. I'd say…six?" He remarked suggestively.

The Kirigakure swordsman glanced at the tally and saw what the boy was doing. "Hmph. You want to put yourself ahead of me by one kill, hoping I'd just say yes and wouldn't notice. Damn brat."

"Aw, really." Naruto didn't care, but it would have made for a lot of self-respect if he could claim that he outsmarted someone like Zabuza in something as trivial as a tally. "Anyway, sorry about your…associates?"

"What associates?"

"I'm talking about…oh…" Naruto trailed off. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Dead weight, complained too much, got on my nerves…but there are some complications with my tool, Haku."

"Hmm?" The ice user looked up from her medical work on Tazuna. "Complications?"

"Hai. I seem to recall one of these so-called boy-team members say that you begged them to help us. I want to know everything." Zabuza ordered. Haku gulped a little in an unnerved state as she heard his command. " _Now._ "

While Haku spoke with Zabuza, Naruto went to check up on his recuperating family. "Huh. I didn't even get to see you all before this sh-…" He trailed off, minding his adoptive mother's frown. "…Sh-…enanigans. Shenanigans…" He saw her frown dissipate and he mentally sighed in relief, knowing that he was in the clear. "…Happened. You're all alright, I take it?"

"I killed a man and beat half to death several others your team weakened!" Tazuna cheered. "Too bad I lost some of that high quality saki in the process. Hell, even your otouto beat the daylights outta that one guy with one of his tou-san's oars! You should-a seen it!" He said proudly.

"Really?" Naruto asked, disbelievingly.

"Hai." Tsunami glared. "And he's going to get it when we get home."

Naruto thought of the potentially water-damaged home and wondered if he should tell her. "Well, I can't guarantee that the home will be exactly like you left it, but with some work and some coin, it'll be better than ever. That's a promise, Kaa-chan!"

"Damage? What damage?"

"If I told you, you'd probably write off all ninja as bad guys."

"I don't have you all as 'bad guys'. You're one too, my son." The house-woman smiled as she tried to pull off his hood, but he shied away. "What's wrong?"

"Um…my eyes changed. I got a new ability. I don't know how to turn it off yet, if I actually can." He said tersely.

" **Hmm…"** Kurama suddenly became vocal. **"It's already been established that this thing doesn't use chakra, like your other abilities. Maybe you can just 'force' it to turn off, like when you resisted your 'Reflex' to abandon Haku and save yourself."**

Naruto pulled his mother to one side and told her to look in his eyes and tell him if she saw any change. At the start, she was taken aback by the design of his new…iris and sclera colour and the…cartwheel-looking spokes looked a bit unsettling, to say the least. "Is the new thing the change, or am I looking for your blue eyes?" She whispered, minding the fact that his genin squad-mates still didn't know about his abilities.

"Blue eyes."

He tried to force chakra to his eyes.

"No."

He stopped all chakra to his eyes.

"Nothing."

'Perhaps I can just 'Focus' on my eyes changing back.' He concentrated on the reflected image of his blue eyes, and Tsunami said that it changed back. With a grin, he recalled his earlier reflection of his new eyes and she disappointedly told him that it changed back to the new ones.

"No!" He scream-whispered excitedly. "I turned it back on by myself! I can control it!" He turned back off again to show her that he could.

"Wow! Really? How does the world look to you with it on? Is it different?"

"Naruto and his so-called brothers!" Zabuza yelled out to all, interrupting their current tasks and affairs. "Get over here!"

Psychosis stopped goading Gato with a kunai, Doc finished up his healing of Hinata; Naruto, Fate and Farsight temporarily ceased their private conversations and strode over to the man. "Hai?" Naruto asked in an irritated manner. "What is it?"

"It's about Haku." The man said in a distaste-ridden tone. Naruto frowned at the man's tone, wondering as to what could have made the man sound so upset. He looked to Haku, but she held her head down as if she were ashamed.

"What about her?"

"Although it was due to a couple of battle complications why I couldn't fight at my utmost…" The Kiri Demon started, leveling the boys a glare. "I would have been hard pressed to kill twelve anbu all at once. They're not exactly eager to come within my reach, and they were, for the most, wearing me down before they killed me. I have to admit that I appreciated the help. For healing my wounds, the blood-pill, and disposing of the suicidal bastard that tried to take me with him. I never knew that they were getting that desperate."

"Douitashimashite." The boys chorused.

"Hmm…hai. Arigato." The man said in an uncertain tone, as if it were the least used word in his life.

"But what does this have to do with Haku?" Naruto asked.

"She always had the choice to be my tool. I just never said no."

"I detested how you called her as such." Naruto argued. But to his confusion, the swordsman grinned widely akin to a shark.

"Well, prepare for the shocker, brat. You remember what she said to you?"

"Every word. Why?" Naruto questioned.

"From what she tells me, the critical info and clause was at the end of her pleas for you to help her and me. Think about it…"

Naruto looked up to his forehead as he recalled the conversations, and thought about it.

 _Haku: "Please! I'll do anything! I'll buy your services, if that's what you want!"_

 _Fate: "I don't think so. You can't just buy this away, and besides, we have more money than we know what to do with."_

 _Haku: "My master is in peril! I owe him my life! I'll become your servant, your slave if I have to! My chastity?! You can have that too! Just please help us!"_

 _Naruto: "Did she just say slave? Chastity?" "_

 _Haku: "Hai!"_

 _Naruto: "What?! No! Psychosis, just take off her chakra-restriction seal. We're leaving."_

 _Haku: "You won't help? I thought that you were of the ideal of helping the lesser fortunate."_

…

 _Fate: "Oh fuck. He's a sucker for pretty girls."_

 _Naruto: "Let's help her guys…"_

"Mm hmm." Naruto nodded as he finished recalling. "We didn't want to help her fight the anbu at first, but she really pricked at my conscience. Is that what you mean?"

"Not the idealistic shitty part. She's now yours."

"What?" (X3) "Come again?" (X2) "What the fuck?" (X1)

Naruto pondered the conversation again. "I see what's going on. Listen, it's not just because I abhor the practice of human trafficking and slavery, people changing ownership like cattle, but I distinctly remember saying 'no'. As in 'No, we're leaving.'"

Haku frowned while closing her eyes. "I did not rescind my offer for your services…"

"No. I did not accept your terms." Naruto retorted heatedly

"You changed your mind, boss." Psychosis said plainly, as if it were a simple black-and-white wrangling. "You changed your mind, and unknowingly accepted her terms."

"It's a tiny loophole. One I refuse to let you **exploit**." Naruto glared, as he pointed at the swordsman's face in anger. "I refuse to be any part of this!"

"Well, damn you and your conscience, huh?" Fate said coolly. "I told you your self-sacrificial behavior would get you into trouble."

"Those weren't your exact words." Naruto answered.

"So? I paraphrased. Still the same meaning, and _nothing's_ changed for you here. What's going to happen?"

"Errm…" Naruto's brain went into overdrive. "Maybe, just this once, I break my own rule and morals, I ' _accept'_ her for services rendered, and just 'give her back' to you? Is that applicable?"

Psychosis muttered under his breath. "You forget what he told you at the start, smart-ass. In spite of your 'Memory' and 'Understanding', you fail to realize that he was laying the foundation for this. She was always free to serve him; she was never his own, never for him to say 'mine'. She served him by her own free will…"

Naruto scowled. "Shit, shit, shit!"

"…And she sold herself to you in exchange for our, or more specifically, _your_ services; that hinged on the fact that she knew that we were taking orders from you. She sold herself into bondage to _you_ …"

"Shit! Shit! Shit!"

"…So she belongs to you."

Naruto groaned. "Even so, can't I just let her go free or something?"

The swordsman beckoned for the Uzumaki to follow him. That he did, and soon, both males were out of earshot from all others. "You'd better take her, and keep her."

"Why should I? Pray tell!" The Uzumaki bit out angrily.

"The girl…has a rather unfortunate past. Not like my own, but she had her own problems in her own history." The man muttered. "She was purposeless, and she found a reason to exist by dedicating her life, to further my own ambitions as my tool."

"She belongs to you then. She belongs _with_ you, I should say."

"She was always free to make her own choice. She never said she was mine to use as I willed, she just…listened to me, trained under my tutelage, fought with and for me, and that's why she's so devoted to me. She found a reason to exist, just by serving me…"

"That's…sad. And pathetic."

The man nodded. "You're right on that point. But the fact of the matter remains is that since she doesn't belong to me, and but sold herself to you; a master who doesn't want her…"

Naruto saw the point which the man was driving at. "…She'd lose her sense of purpose."

"Exactly. And I know her to be the kind of person who can't live without a purpose. She'd be likely to kill herself."

Naruto sighed deeply as he scratched his cheek. "You're not making this easy on me. You're saying that I have to pick the lesser of two evils. Either take her on as a servant or slave or whatever, or don't, which will lead to her ending her own life."

"Glad we had this chat." The nukenin said. "I'm going to get something to eat. You sort through the rest of this shit-pile on your own." The man disappeared in a water shunshin and left Naruto alone to plan his next move.

 **=X=X=**

It had been a mere five minutes before Naruto went back to the others. "Well? What now?" Narburei asked. "Poor girl here looked like she was worrying her head off, wondering what her verdict is or something."

"Verdict? Of course not!" Haku retorted. Naruto, on the other hand, did detect a fretful tone in her voice, and knew that all the man had said to be true.

'I hope I'm doing the right thing…' "So…I deliberated a little with Zabuza," he began.

"And…?" She pressed, eyebrows raised.

"I accept your terms." He was nearly mobbed by all of the T13 members present, before he yelled in his mind for all to be quiet. "I…accept your…um…'service'," he said awkwardly using air-quotes with his fingers. "For five years, or anytime before that if it's of your own choosing. As for your…err…chastity…" His face became heated to supernova proportions. "That's if we ever actually end up in a long term relationship. That's the best I can do, 'cause I once read about servants being subservient for a minimum of five years and anything much longer than that is practically or technically is a slave if they're unpaid, which I **don't** want. You'll be paid, of course."

The ice-user merely stared at him. "Paid? I already paid **you** with my terms."

Psychosis grinned beneath his mask. "Yes sir, the cut and dry of it is, she works for him for free for five years, or she can bail before that if she quits. As for if they ever get to fucking, that's based on the condition if they're in a relationship. She said 'can have that too', so it's a perk should he ever want to cash in on later!"

"…Could your brother be any more crass?" Haku asked a now definitely-crimson Uzumaki.

Naruto sighed deeply. 'If she finds out that he's an extension of me, I'm probably done for…' "Never mind him. Shake on it?" He held out his hand, still trying to regain his composure. However, what little he had was retired to flames as she embraced him in rather tight hug that let him know that she was all female, especially by way of bosom.

"I will not let you down, master."

"Oh boy. This just a whole lot more complicated," he muttered awkwardly, feeling put off by his brethren laughing at him.

" **Damn, boy! 'Master'! She's not even bedded yet, but I like the way she thinks. This could make for some really fun kinky shi-"**

And it was there at that point, Naruto cut the mental connection to his beast.

 **=X=X=**

"For the love of Shogi-playing Kami…you know what?!" Kurenai yelled at him in a rhetorical question. "I! GIVE! UP!"

"Um…sensei?"

"Sensei nothing! Kimyō Town was fairly understandable in hindsight. But this here in Wave… this went to shit so fast, I could have sworn I was getting hit by the shrapnel of it! You got a family here in Wave, you have what…six brothers, most of which are like you by ways of body and mass who came out of nowhere, you killed three Hunter Nin, your 'inner secret' can talk through you like a damn crazy possession, you and your so-called brothers want to torture the spoilt-rotten rich midget-bastard, and now this former enemy is bound to you by service for five years and has to come back with you to the VILLAGE!" Yuhi ranted in frustration.

"Hai." He said simply.

"I…am…not…writing…a…report…on…this…" She growled through her teeth.

"Shadow clones make for a good solution for work you can't bother with." Naruto suggested.

The woman stomped off somewhere undeterminable and left the others to their own devices. She left in her wake an uneasy mood, but Naruto went about clearing the air with some introductions.

"Well everyone, meet everyone. Hinata-chan, Shino, Tazuna-Oji, Kaa-chan, Inari, I want you to meet my brothers. The facts surrounding them are a bit sketchy for their sakes, but I'm sure you'll get used to them in the future. But for now, they're using the names Fate, Farsight, Surge, Psychosis and Doc."

"Kon-nichi wa. Oh…err, how do we know which is which?" Tsunami asked.

Naruto face-palmed, before pointing at his own crest, as well as the larger one on his back when he turned to show them. "The crests, alright? Doc is obviously the one that looks like a medical cross, and the rest…aw, I'll let 'em tell you."

Surge pointed at his excitedly. "I'm all about electricity, yeah!"

Farsight merely grunted the word 'sensoring', while Fate blandly said that he 'specialized in assassination'.

"What's him about?" Tazuna asked as he stared at Narburei.

"I'm all about liberating information from people as painfully as possible. My main purpose on this mission was to keep things interesting, and to tor-…"

"He's probably the one to torture Gato." Shino interrupted, much to the boy's ire. "A torture specialist. But if Naruto is just introducing them to his family, that means that they're strange to them as well, only linked to Naruto by all means."

'Hmm. What's the closest thing to the truth?' Naruto pondered. "I adopted them as my brothers, when they weren't originally." 'Yeah, perfect.'

"They're roughly your size…"

"Coincidence." Psychosis answered.

"You all sound nearly the same. It's mostly your patterns of speech, vocabulary and slight change in vocals and the symbol-bearing crests that one could use to tell you apart…"

"Coincidence!"

"But-"

"COINCIDENCE!" The T13 member shouted the Aburame down. Now where did I leave that tied-up bastard?! I've got a lot of time, but we don't have to keep him alive for valuable info. Heh heh, yeeeaahhh…" He drawled in a rather satisfied-sounding tone.

"Ano…Naruto-kun, are you really going to torture Gato?" Hinata hazarded timidly. "I can understand your need for revenge, but…isn't torture going too far?"

The Uzumaki turned to the girl robotically. "Like how Gato had my father's arms lopped off?"

She didn't have any justifiable response to that. And indeed, what could she say? All she could hope was that the boy didn't become corrupted, and that she herself wasn't. She had seen her own tally, and wasn't feeling celebratory. In fact, it felt like a pyrrhic victory. To win a war, but the loss of her principles of not killing…she was indeed a ninja, and Naruto's warning about her eventual life-taking had come to pass. Had it been a harbinger?

"Anyway, we're going to go missing for a while, all." Psychosis said. "I'm doing most of the dirty work, but…" He started chuckling. "We're going to prepare some things, but after that, you'll have to leave. You might lose your lunch, and that'll only make the cleanup afterwards more difficult."

All six of the Thirteen nodded simultaneously, before Psychosis grabbed Gato by the collar. As the man started muffled-screaming through his duct-tape gag, they all left in a body-flicker.

 **=X=X= (Torture Scene. Don't like, don't read. Besides that, err, 'enjoy' what I could concoct, I guess.)**

Eyes opened slowly, and as they came into focus, they took in the sight of everywhere. It felt…familiar. He had had the pleasure of coming to this place that could see everywhere in the country, and decided that he must have fallen asleep again on the roof of his high-rise place of business that doubled as his home.

"Kuso. Just another fuckin' nightmare. I gotta stop sleeping after getting drunk on the forty-year-old wine…"

"A nightmare?" A voice asked.

"What? Who said that?" He tried to turn his head, but realized that he couldn't. After some more realization, he felt…was a searing pain. He could bear it, but it felt like someone had bound every part of his body with something like thread. While some places felt slack, when he tugged on it, it felt painful to do so, as well as elsewhere. "Where am I?!"

"You're on the roof. Don't you remember?" Gato heard joints popping behind him as if someone had gotten up and stretched but couldn't turn his head to look. The person soon strode to the fore of him, and his eyes widened. "No! YOU!"

Naruto was emotionless. "Uh huh. You blacked out after your trial. Don't you remember? You got sentenced to death by a jury of your peers, my brothers, and one of your former employees. You know, names like Tsunami, Tazuna, Inari, Zabuza, and a few others who wanted your head on a pike. Only Zabuza's going to come back to watch the finale, while the others have left."

"What?! I…did nothing wrong?!"

"Tsk, tsk. You lied at your own trial yesterday afternoon, and it only added to your rather painful sentence. Now, since you can't even see your own condition, let me describe it to you. You're bound to a log, on your knees..."

"Get me down!"

"…The bonds are so close, it's as if you're melded to it..."

"Someone get me down from here!"

"That's with rope. Only your fingers and toes are any exception. Both your hands and feet are tied behind you, and ninja-wire, almost thread-like in looks, but with a ridiculously-high tensile strength, has been tied from each finger and thumb, to each corresponding toe. It's also close, but if you so much as completely clench your thumb, you'll lose your big toe; vice-versa applies, of course."

"NO!"

"That was all I decided to add to what's going to happen. I saw dogs eating baby-shit when I first came, and I decided that your stubby little digits might feed them as an appetizer. Give you something to watch. Narburei, get over here!"

Psychosis got up from the recliner-chair and strode into the man's vision. "Good morning. I'll be your pain inflictor for the day. Let's get started, shall we?" He grinned under his mask, while putting on some disposable gloves. It would also be fair to mention that he was wearing a butcher's apron, but that didn't alleviate Gato's mood. No sir, not one bit.

The boy went to the man's side, pulled on the man's eyelid, and using a kunai, pressed into it before sawing through it quickly. He ignored the man's guttural screaming, and quickly grabbing a hold of the next one, repeated the step.

"Gaaah!"

"And that's minus eyelids!" The torture clone cheered. "No more blinking, and blood's running into your eyes. While painful, the sensation's only mild to what happens later…" He dropped the eyelids into a large bowl labeled 'DOG'S SUPPER' and turned back to the man. He then unsealed a saw-toothed knife, and informed another brother to 'ensure that the man didn't bleed out'. "Heal blood vessels alone constantly. We still have to remove organs and such."

The boy nodded, and raised a blue-glowing finger. "Where next?"

"His ears." Narburei pulled on the man's ears, and somehow, managed to drag the saw-toothed knife back and forth through the man's ear for all of five minutes. In the meantime, Doc merely closed off the man's blood vessels, but did nothing for the pain. It was torture, after all.

"Do the next ear." Naruto ordered, while sipping on orange-juice he had taken from the man's refrigerator. "Hmm. What next after that one, huh?"

"Cut off his nuts, and feed it to him. The actual dick goes in the bowl."

Gato started pissing himself as he screamed, but the boys ignored it. He had already shit himself the previous night, and he had had nothing to eat since even before that. It wouldn't get messy today…besides the blood-letting that Doc would actually allow. Blood pills existed for a reason, and he had stocked up on hundreds in his own private seals.

As Gato screamed, Naruto started pondering about the genitals. "This isn't gay, is it?"

"Nah. It's just painful. But hmm, yeah, it's probably gay for a guy to eat his own nuts."

"…That's nasty, man."

The deed done, Psychosis punched the man in the gut as hard as possible, and as the man coughed up blood, he forced the man's nuts into his mouth, braced his mouth with a stick, and prodded it down his throat with the ring of a kunai. The man, of course, in his repulsion,, vomited it back up, but then Doc fed the man anti-regurgitation pills. The man's vomit covered nuts were forced down his throat again.

"Well, now what?" Naruto asked.

"I got a list of things we're shopping for!" Psychosis said. "Doc, hand me a scalpel."

He got said scalpel, and after ripping the man's business shirt off, made a rough incision and practically opened the flap of the man's flesh from his chest down to his groin slowly. During the 'procedure', Gato screamed, and inadvertently removed three of his toes and two fingers with the wires. His thumbs were just bones as the wire had merely pulled off all the flesh, but Naruto yanked them off anyway, before dropping it into the bowl.

The man bled heavily in a pool all around him, before Doc quickly sealed the blood vessels. "Alright, that one there's the stomach," He poked at it roughly, making the man bawl. "If I should just yank on this…" He grabbed a long meaty-looking rope and pulled on it. All of a sudden, most of the man's bloody guts and tripe fell out and gathered in front of him like a knotted ball of string. As it did, Doc quickly got a small piece of sheet board close by for his purposes, and inserted it inside the man's midsection; bracing it on his lower-most ribs to support his upper organs like a makeshift scaffold. "Alright. The lungs, heart and stomach is fine. Everything else is pretty much outside of his body."

The man screamed in his agony until he blacked out from the sight and pain from his woes, eyes still open. Naruto merely threw a nearby pail of water on his face to wake him up. "Hey! Wake up! How dare you fall asleep at your own funeral!"

"Boss, that's cheesy, but I guess it'll be fine in hindsight." Psychosis said. "So, what next, Doc? We don't want him dying too soon."

"I'll have to heal his lungs. Their shape collapsed, but everything besides that…well…"

"Does he need his digestive tract to live out the rest of his torture time?" Naruto asked sarcastically.

"…No."

The man still screamed at the top of his lungs, begging for death, but they ignored him.

"Cut off the intestines, and put everything that disconnected into the bowl." Naruto ordered.

"That's not the issue. He lost a myriad of organs vital for living, like for the conversion of certain elements in the blood as is the case of the liver. Not to mention the network of blood vessels that got parted."

"…" Naruto groaned. "Fine, after you mend the vessels, how long will he possibly live for?"

"Three hours, so long as shock doesn't finish him off. Now get a damn knife, both of you, and start cutting out the dogs' dinner." He quickly created two shadow clones, one of which to help him medically. The other one, he gave different instructions. "Go get Narsensa. He's practically the team's chef, and if anyone can cook this shit-pile of human guts, it's him."

The clones went about as they were asked, and they all started cutting here and there, mending certain blood vessels, and throughout it all, Gato's screams had been reduced to high-volume groans as he had rendered himself hoarse. At the end of it all, Gato's midsection was roughly-mended and a half-empty cavity when the clone came back with Farsight.

Farsight was carrying one of the kitchen's extremely large soup pots.

"Whoa, whoa, what the fuck is all the shit right here?" He yelled poisonously.

Doc looked up to him to answer. "Liver, kidneys, spleen, pancreas, large and small intestines, gallbladder, some glands and such."

Farsight cocked his head as he picked up the overflowing bowl of organs and assorted gore and poured the contents into the pot, as well as picking up the stray ones and pieces that littered the ground around it. "Well, you're in luck. I happen to have a recipe for that."

"Really?" Naruto asked in disbelief. "You do?"

"Yeah. It calls for filling this pot halfway with water, putting into some green seasoning, some salt, boil it like a soup for half an hour and calling it 'Dog Food.' Who the **fuck** do you think I am, huh?"

"A damn good cook." Doc replied. "Just make it taste good for the mongrels, eh?"

Gato yelled in protest, still laced with pained groans before he started begging for death again feverishly.

"I didn't hear a no, so he approves." Naruto said. "Get to it, huh?"

The short-tempered sensor clone bundled off with his pot full of guts while the torturers went back to tormenting them by slowly removing his limbs.

…

…

…

"Really? First you cut off his feet at the ankles, then his knees, then at his pelvis? And for his hands, you cut it off at the wrists, then at the elbow, then at the shoulder?" Zabuza asked. "And he's still alive?"

"You doubt medical Ninjutsu?" Doc asked curiously with a glare.

"No. Well, you brats weren't dreadfully unique, except for the 'eyes' bit. You had him stare at the sun all day while you removed his organs?"

"Yep." Psychosis said. "Are these all the dogs you baited here all the ones you could find?"

"I just walked around with a fucking piece of beef and they all followed me here. Can't you tell from their goddamn yapping?" Zabuza growled.

Indubitably, they were certainly here. Narsensa soon returned with the cooled 'soup' and a large platter of cut-up limbs sprinkled with seasoning and called out. "The food's done. To be honest, I threw up in the soup a couple of times, but Gato doesn't mind, does he? Also, Surge came by to check up on us, and hurled into it too. Although his was in all actuality, more accidental than mine…"

The Gato's throat had been briefly healed and he was screaming again; all for the intention for those present to hear him. He was still upright, but he was only bound about the head, shoulders and groin to the standing log. He had been reduced to less than half the flesh and innards he previously was, and certainly not a man anymore; his dick had been in the soup, and his stomach acids had dissolved his testicles hours ago.

"Feed the damn dogs!" Zabuza called. He threw the small slab of beef to one corner, and the dozens of flea-bitten mongrels all gathered into the corner to swarm it. Before the group broke up, Narsensa set down the pot and kicked over the contents towards them.

"Grub is up, grub is up!"

And said half-starved dogs commenced to rip into the feast of guts right before Gato's widened eyes as he screamed…and all of Wave heard him. Most felt relieved and happy in a manner of relief and sadism, and others who knew of his specific fate shivered when they heard the bloodcurdling sound.

"Give 'em the hands and feet, will yah?! Make sure each gets their fair share." Naruto called. "Hold on…you deep-fried the things, Farsight?!"

The torturers and Zabuza all shrugged as they all took a piece of human tool for locomotion and action and threw it to the neediest-looking of the dogs. The man screamed himself hoarse once more as the dogs polished off all that he was, and even licked the other miscellaneous soup-material and liquid clean.

"Damn. You know what? I think we're done." Doc said.

"Yeah. You know what else?" Naruto added. "Let Zabuza kill him. He hasn't done anything to him yet. He did screw him over, after all."

The man smirked and pulled his sword off of his back. "What an honor…" The man growled sarcastically. He blasted the cowering quad-amputee man with killing intent. Before the man could even utter another sound, Zabuza heaved up the sword high over his head and used it in an axe-drop to part the log, Gato, and some of the roof neatly in two. As the bonds holding the man parted, the shipping magnate's corpse fell apart to both sides, and the dogs, still not satisfied as Naruto had believed them to be, started gnawing and chewing at the man's halved body. They weren't really eating him; it was more like in a matter of using him as a relish, or to clean their palate.

"Well, damn. I guess a dog's appetite really can't be satisfied. Let them clean up this mess. I'm going to take a bath."

All seemed to have the same idea as well, and all went to get themselves cleaned up, save for Zabuza who took a seat and watched the dogs continue to maul the two pieces of the man's body. "I guess this torture was fine after all. The brats didn't really have a lot of resources, but they made use of what they got."

 **This is a rather lengthy author's note. Please read.** _ **Very important, especially as to matters of the Kekkei genkai.**_

 **Chapter: And that's that. Couldn't really add anything more without doing a whole scene. And to tell the truth…this chapter was done from Sunday. Sorry, but it's my personal rule to only post on the weekend…yeah, sorry.**

 **Torture: Anyway, for those who read my one-shot 'Getting Past his Lamentation', the 'eyes and nuts' thing was taken from that…you know, the threat to the Daimyo. Forced to watch the sun without blinking as his eyes practically fried in his skull. Err, I for one, will not take that lightly.**

 **For him getting fed to dogs, I used that idea from my time story 'Living Twice'. That part where Naruto 'prophesied' what happened to Inari.**

 **The torture…hmm…it was easy to write, fairly easy for y'all to read without getting upset. As Zabuza said, they didn't have a lot of resources, but they did fine. This was what Narburei could think up, and he's still a beginner. Imagine what he could do later with some experience, no? Also, about Doc having to help him, that was a mere luxury. One of which was making sure the man lasted longer if they were going remove his organs for crying out loud. Elements of the torture was taken from the inspiration of torture done by Indians of the Wilder West in the USA when everyone was chasing land via the Oregon Trail. Indian tribes include Apache, Sioux and Pawnee. Seriously, to feed a man's own organs and other body parts to animals right in front of him…I think that's pretty gruesome, don't you think? Either that, or a good ol' fashioned scalping. Hmm...maybe I'll make him do that in the future.**

 **New ability: Yeah, this one was purely about battle tactics. I have the name, but you guys will find out later the secrets surrounding his whole Kekkei Genkai. As for what I can about it now, the description (looks) is fairly easy to understand. The ability itself is easy, and a tiny bit complicated.**

 **Imagine something like a family tree. There's twenty five on top. In the second generation/step, each of those had twenty-five kids. After that, multiply that by twenty five again, and so on. In the end, it'll look like this:**

 **1** **st** **step: 25 = 25**

 **2** **nd** **step: 25 x 25 = 625**

 **3** **rd** **step: 25 x 25 x 25 = 15625**

 **4** **th** **step: 25 x 25 x 25 x25 = 390625**

 **5** **th** **step: 25 x 25 x 25 x25 x 25 = 9765625**

 **Now that it's broken down, looks simple, right? It's like this, he can start out with a plan, it has five possible deviations in the second step, twenty-five in the next, and so-on, and so forth. Now imagine twenty-five ideas, going on like that…**

 **After his chance for a first step passes, or he 'rejects' them, he gets a 'refresh' on new ideas after a waiting period of .25 seconds. Aw, that's slow, isn't it? So new battle ideas constantly goes through his head, and he has Memory. It's obvious that he's the best guy there is mentally, and with 'Focus' and 'Reflex', he's probably overpowered. And most fights could and can be fought with less than five steps for an end-game. So, he has at any one time, 10172525 battle outcomes, which can and is 'updated' every .25 seconds to take into account all battle factors that occur. I have been building up his mental capacities for this ability, and with 'Focus' to know when to act, and 'Reflex' to** _ **react**_ **when things get dicey, the dojutsu is perfect.**

 **Mm hmm. And there are still some more abilities left. I know, right?!**

 **So he's prepared for millions of outcomes. I personally like the idea better than the sharingan, unless you're one of the fans of the OP Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susano'o. Anyway, that's the theory part. His dojutsu is simple, no physicality phenomenon like the Mangekyo attacks, and he'll still kick ass.**

 **As for how he sees things; I described it already. For the sake of clarity, he can see outlines around jutsus. He saw the sharks, he saw Kurenai in her camo-genjutsu and all that. He was the only one who did. It's not like the byakugan. He merely saw her outline of chakra for her jutsu, not** _ **through**_ **the genjutsu. He will not** _ **see through**_ **people.**

 **It also outlines things of battle interest: combatants, weak-spots of techniques, 'holes and openings' in a person's guard, weapons, including those hidden. (Not X-ray vision for kunoichi who can and tend to hide weapons between breasts, you perves!), things that stand out, or anything that could be used to help him fight. As for sealed weapons, he can't see the weapons, but I'll figure something out.**

 **The theory behind the jutsu…I'm proud of that. I believe I'm the first person to think that up. (Mine! Mine! MY OWN!) The outliner, while I'm proud for writing about it, has been done before, sadly. (Aw.)**

 **-For those who watch cartoons, I think I've seen it in a Ben 10: Omniverse episode. (It's the one where he turns into Brainstorm and fights some wannabe heroes. Ben, after the fight claims that he quits being a superhero and throws his jacket in the trash. While as Brainstorm, he saw things he could use to fight with an outline of green. [Obviously].**

 **-It's also in the Adventure Time episode 'Sky Witch' when Princess Bubblegum sees things that stood out, like suspicious things; things that changed recently and the like. Those items and objects were outlined in a shade of red. (Since this reference is so specific, maybe you can find a video for it on YouTube or something, if you really want a visual aid.)**

 **-For a movie, I've seen it in 'The Green Hornet' where Kato sees weapons outlined in red, and close to the end of the movie, Brit saw them outlined in green. (Also a good reference. Maybe you'll find a fight scene for it. Hell, I even remember seeing it in the movie trailer.)**

 **-For a game, it's been done in Watch Dogs. When Aiden is using 'Focus', all enemies are seen in a bright white (or a very light grey) outline.**

 **The dojutsu does not rely on chakra, which I think is a good deviation from the typical dojutsus in the show. He can will it on or off, based on how he wants his eyes to be. Also, he unlocked it not because of** _ **desperation**_ **, '** _ **true**_ _ **love'**_ **or any of that. He got it because he 'resisted' Reflex in the last chapter, and as a plan B, it was unlocked to give him potential alternatives of action. Blah-blah-blah.**

 **I hope you liked the 'Haku complication', 'cause I enjoyed doing that part. Heh heh. Let it develop Naruto's character a bit more, yes? Besides, I find it a pleasant change besides Zabuza either dying or going back home and tells Haku to serve Naruto, like a tool or something of the sort. Just one change, faulty statements and a little exploitation, and I think I pulled it off well. Not like a tool, but like a servant/slave. I don't approve of slavery, but I approve of her calling him 'Master'. Heh heh. Yeah!**

 **As for Haku's battle strength, I explained her situation for her point-of-view earlier. She's not weak, but she was 'weakened' due to several complications, like already low on chakra, next to no sleep, things like that.**

 **As for Zabuza's battle strength…sweet mercy, people! Sure, let's just use the 'Kirigakure no jutsu' and murder everyone in a mist. He wasn't using that to fight (Read: Fear of electrocution), jounin who knew the man's abilities (Read: Stay the hell away from the zanbato-using murderer and tire him out) and he lost his sword. (Read: Naruto's fault. [But Zabuza didn't know it was** _ **him**_ **.] As far as I know and care, there's a massive difference between someone who's A ranked and S ranked, and Zabuza isn't S ranked.)**

 **Don't read too much into those details. But anyway, everything worked out for the best. Naruto's got a 'servant' girl, Kurenai had a change of heart and went to help after all but is still not on perfect terms with him, Zabuza's alive, and Gato made some hungry dogs** _ **very**_ **happy.**

 **(Side note: The next chapter should be up by midnight tonight)**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	29. Chapter 29

**Breaking Limits**

 **So long as I still feel the vibes for typing this fic in the same week, I'll keep on.**

 **Also, I'm planning another Universal Update while I sort out some life issues over on my end, as well as some recuperation. NO, it's not that I hurt myself, to all the smartasses who think I had a parkour accident. So the update will happen with the visual updates for everthing, as well as the fact that I'll be rewriting my schedule.** _ **That,**_ **and the fact that I'm still seeing way too many errors I missed during the proofreading I've done during January. It needs to be fixed. As for when you'll see me next, it'll be in around thirty days. Thereabouts…could be longer, or less. Maybe I'll be able to surprise you all with another double update. I know I've surprised myself in the past; I did these two chapters in...around five days.**

 **Disclaimer: I own this work of fiction, done on another work of fiction. Said original work of fiction belongs to whoever the hell it belongs to, and that ain't me.**

 **29.**

"Hai…that's it. Right there."

Haku stepped back from her work and turned back to Tsunami. "Are you sure?"

The woman smiled pleasantly. "But of course. I should know how my own home looks originally, don't I?"

The ice user turned back to where she had positioned the lamp and shrugged. The woman was extremely specific as to the location of all the items, and ensured that the ice-user used all of her talents with **Suiton** to ensure that no water damage will occur in any part of the household that spent more than an hour under water. Although the water was all chakra and it 'faded' away to nothing upon its release from battle, water damage could still be a problem, in the same way that people had drowned in it.

It had been a week since that fight.

Naruto and his brothers had all the corpses hauled away and buried in some remote location, and that was after she had said a small prayer over her former comrades. It was more out of courtesy and obligation, not that she wanted to. While she was alright with working with them under Zabuza, she had disliked their brutality at times, as well as wearing their sexual deviations on their sleeves. One preferred…'younger girls', while the other liked rape. She approved of neither, and she supposed that it was mostly out of fear of Zabuza and actual respect for her why they left her alone.

"Tsunami-san, I know that I never had an earlier opportunity to apologize, but-"

"It's fine, dear."

"But-" She started to protest, but Tsunami would hear none of it.

"It's in the past. While you may have had your part to play, we all overcame, and that's what's important. Besides, you already told me yourself that you detested working for Gato."

Haku smiled. "Which sensible person wouldn't?"

The door was opened suddenly and the two females turned to it, only to see the Uzumaki walk in. "Konbanwa." He took off his sandals, and stared uneasily as they gazed at him. "What?"

"Where've you been?" His adoptive mother asked.

"Oh, just getting reintroduced to everyone by Inari. He left me in the square, and I got mobbed by old people pinching in my cheeks." He rubbed the side of his face woefully, but the pain had already been alleviated from his advanced healing. "Are my brothers back yet?"

"They're all outside to the back. They must have finished setting up everything by now, master." Haku answered.

"…Err, will you ever stop calling me that?" The boy asked, scratching his cheek uneasily. "You're starting to scare me."

"My apologies, master."

Tsunami sighed. "I can't get used to it, myself. When you first told me the details around that…" She trailed off with a marring frown. "Frankly, it made me wonder what the world was coming to, 'Naruto has a servant girl who calls him master', they all said, and then you tell me."

"I don't like it anymore than you do, Kaa-chan. But she's free to stop anytime she wants. This is going to be a trying five years." The raincloud that had seemingly settled over his head suddenly disappeared as his countenance brightened. "Anyway, I'm half-starved. I'm going to go wash up."

It was a mere fifteen minutes later when he donned a t-shirt and shin-length shorts and made his way downstairs, before going outside to the back. The fence had been pulled down and removed, and back there was now a long buffet-style table, at which there were enough seats set up for all those to be there. There was a wonderful mosaic of smells out there as the table was set up with enough food to fill everyone twice.

"Hey everyone."

All looked to him and hailed to him their own form of a greeting. It was a bit confusing, but with 'Focus', he was able to discern the pleasantries from Inari, his T13 brethren, Haku, his mother, Tazuna, and his fellow squad-mates from Team 8.

'Psychosis, Fate, Surge, Doc, Farsight?'

'Hmm?' (x5)

'Did you guys distribute enough food to the town already before cooking up this storm for us here?'

'Of course.' Psychosis retorted. 'After we all went to Kumo and bought all the food, we just created a few clones and distributed it. Everyone got a weeks worth. We didn't use the gold, though, we only used Gato's cash. It's easy to impersonate him and liquidize most of his assets to several bank accounts in our name. Or should I say, _several of my names._ But I made out one for you too, boss.'

Farsight shook his head. "Food now, business later. Now who will bless the meal?"

Naruto sat down at his place. It was in between Haku and Fate on one of the sides. Zabuza was seated at the foot of the table, and Tazuna at the head. Apart from that, the teams and families more or less sat close to one another. "The person who sat down first will do it."

Zabuza grumbled to himself. "For fuck's sakes, I was just hungry. Is that a crime, or some shit like that?"

"Language, Momochi." Tsunami chided. The nukenin decided that rather than get ousted from the table when he was famished, he'd comply. But only this once.

"Grrr…Fine. Kami, thank you for providing this food, and for all those who helped in the preparation of it." Without blinking a single eyelash, the man reached for large helping of meat with his bare hands and started eating it like a ruffian, daring someone to tell him to be more well behaved.

But instead, everyone ignored it and started eating. There was chatting of course, some careless statements and minor eating contests, but it was all in camaderie. It was truly a pity when it came to an end a couple hours later.

…

…

…

It took a lot of banking-information wrangling, threats, impersonation and other such identity theft from a dead man, before Wave practically had a turn around in a mere two weeks. Gato was now like a distant memory as hundreds of T13 kage bunshins crowded Wave like a miraculous working force. People had their homes renovated, mended, refurbished, bodies and minds healed, and cupboards packed with food. In fact, most of all the wares came from Konoha at Kurenai's behest, and in a bout of mutual gain, the Leaf got somewhat richer; thinking that a benevolent businessman was being charitable and Nami no Kuni became a far more ideal place to live in.

All that took was a mere twenty days.

The bridge was not neglected in attention or a substantial labor force either as more clones made themselves useful in the bridge's construction. All too soon, with a rather corrupting level of festivities, the entire populace of the village was out in the square, making merry as if the world was ending the next day.

Naruto smiled. It had been good mission after all, despite all of the completely unexpected trials of it. Many secrets of him were now known to both his family and team, but he didn't care. Perhaps it really had been for the best. It could also serve to make authority in Konoha sweat a little. He had a brand new ability, and couldn't wait to experiment with it when he got home.

However, the smile fell as he thought of how his adopted father had perished. He had avenged him, but it still didn't quench the need for closure. After all of his doings, he was still unhappy. While in his absence, maybe he could write letters to his family in Wave. He had not done so while in the Leaf, and it had cost him much, when it would have originally been so little.

A hand touched him on the shoulder and he nearly fell off of the roof where he sat, giving a small yell in alarm. As he turned to face the owner of said hand, he felt his heart rate drop safely back into its intended rhythm. "Haku?! Damn, you gave me a start."

"Gomenasai, master. I did not mean to startle you."

He had probably gotten used to her calling him by that title, which was why he did not protest against it. "It's fine. You're so...quiet! I didn't hear, or sense you coming." 'And 'Reflex' didn't warn me. Does it only warn of danger? Someone could give me a heart attack by scaring me, but can't kill me by throwing a silent knife? Or is it because of intentions? This needs some observation.'

"So I've been told. But I came up here to find you when I didn't see you in the square. Are you alright?"

He hesitated for a full minute, thinking about his potential answer. "Haku, did you _really_ care about the fact that my father got killed?"

She herself decided to answer carefully, as well as to be truthful. "At the core of my being, I did care. But I tried to suppress that by trying to focus on my work. I was originally going to leave you alone, but when I heard you begging for me to return and crying, I knew that I had to come back."

"That sounds rather questionable...and something one would read out of a fantasy. It's the truth?"

"It is. When you stopped, I railed on myself to continue in my quest for damaging information."

"Wow, that really means a lot." He said sarcastically. "But yeah, thanks for the company, I guess. I suppose that if we hadn't met, we would have fought normally, and maybe I would've killed you. Yikes."

She frowned. "How are you so sure? For all you know, I could have been the one to kill you."

"I have an idea. Do you have some senbon on you?" Naruto remarked after further thought about 'Reflex'.

"Always. Why?"

"That's fine. I want you to throw it at my back when I least expect it. I'm going to sit on the other end of this roof." He got up and made off to his desired location.

"But if you ask me to, wouldn't that mean that you're expecting it?"

"Just do it! It's an experiment." He yelled back. "Anyway, here's the thing. I really think I'm stronger, be-"

"!"

He leaned forwards suddenly on his own body's volition to allow three senbon to pass over him. "Oh, thank goodness. I thought it's a fluke. It's a harmless fluke, but could still create complications." He got up and went back beside her. "What just happened is the reason why you can't beat me."

"You expected it. I timed you wrong."

"No, I didn't expect it." "!" He caught her fist in his palm, just before it smashed into his temple. "Didn't expect that, either. Just hear me out, okay?"

She pulled her arm back to herself, and nodded. "Alright."

"Can I trust you?"

"Hai. Of course, master."

He scrutinized her carefully. He decided that he could just come clean to her, seeing that she would soon have to live with him. And the fact that she was currently living _for_ him. "I have an ability. It's called 'Reflex'."

He quickly explained how it worked, and she was skeptic. "But I scared you half to death earlier. How come it didn't work then?"

"Maybe it's because that you didn't mean to, or it's not an attack. I don't know why."

"Is it related to your eyes?" She queried curiously.

"No. Err, kinda. But we digress. Maybe we can spar when I go home...I mean, when _we_ go home." He corrected himself. He sighed thankfully when he saw her nod acceptingly, but worried that she wouldn't be accepted into the village. He'd cross that line when he got to it, he supposed. "I think I'm stronger."

"Because you killed three anbu?"

"No. Because my body is aware of all danger and reacts as such. Because I cannot miss. Because I have millions of battle ideas going through my mind every second. Because I'm a jinchuriki."

"Do you fight for any precious people?"

"Precious people?" He echoed in question. She quickly explained the concept to him, and he wondered if he fell into that category, for having that general notion. "My brother keeps telling me that I have a tendency to be self-sacrificial. Does that count?"

"To some extent."

"It's not my reason why I fight. I fight for the less fortunate. I grew up in a more bastardized situation than most, and I try my best to make it, at the very least, easier for others to lead tolerable existences."

"You told me of that already. Can you be more specific?"

"You still trying to wheedle me for info?" He raised an eyebrow as he watched her fluster through a protest that she wasn't. "Then why?"

"I'm trying to get to know my new master, is all."

"I'm not sure if this 'master' thing is going to bode well with other people." He remarked, scratching the back of his head. "I have a reputation to keep up."

" **What reputation? You're still the supposed me incarnate in the village."**

"The village has no idea how much I've done for its sake." He answered aloud.

"Hmm?"

"I'm talking to my tailed beast." He said carelessly.

"Oh. I…see?" She hazarded carefully. "Is it friendly?"

"He considers himself a guy. He's fine. Anyway, I don't think I'll just off myself to protect 'precious people'. For the most part, it's probably because I don't have any. Sure, they're people I'm close to, but there's always a another solution besides commiting suicide for someone else to live. If I die for one person, how can I be there for a greater populous? Lets say that I have ten children, and I die to protect one. Who will take care of the nine?"

"…" She appeared deep in thought, trying to think of a way around his argument. "So this to the fact that you did not love the one child to die for him so that he could live?"

"I am well aware of sacrifices. In all things that I do, I have lost something, or had to go without it. Instead, I pray that I'll never come into a situation that demands a life of either the one I own, or that of someone close to me. I fear that my ideals, mentality, and my 'special talents' will clash over the end result."

"…" She looked down, while grasping her knees closer to herself. "When I resurfaced from the water, and you were supporting me in your arms, what happened back then?"

"My 'Reflex' ability wanted me to leap away."

"Why didn't you?"

"It wanted me to leave you behind, in self-preservation."

She smiled satisfactorily. "Indeed. Was I that precious to you?"

"I didn't wish harm on you, alright!" He defended vehemently. Knowing what she was about to say, he shut it down, saying that it was because she needn't die. "So I resisted. What if I hadn't gotten a new ability? We would have both perished."

"Fighting for someone precious makes you strong."

"I see what you're doing. You've been trying to drive me into a trap that will make me say that you were enough of a precious person to me to not abandon you to your death."

"So I'm not? You said so, not I," she asked in mock-disappointment.

"Time will tell."

"But of course, master. Time will also tell if you're precious to me as well."

"Uh huh. Anyway, thanks for hearing me ramble. So, you wanna go down to the square? They're supposed to be some drop-boxes for the Bridge's name. There will be voting for the name to be used tomorrow, and partying and such."

"I have a choice to go?" She asked, genuinely surprised.

"Of course you do-"

"I'm an extension of your will. I do what you tell me, only for I to obey." She said simply.

He thought a bit. "Alright. Haku, I demand that you tell me if you would like to go. Please." He added the last as a sign of courtesy.

"I would like to." She answered, wondering why he was now behaving in such a manner.

"That's fine. I now demand that you accompany me, and enjoy yourself at the festivities." He smiled. His high wattage smile only increased when she smiled back.

"Yes master."

 **=X=X=**

"Well, I'm going to be frank. I read out all the suggestions to the bridge to myself last night and I laughed. But I swear to Kami, this one is the first I drew out at random and the one that I'm supposed to use, granted that everyone still finds the name in good taste." Tazuna spoke clearly.

"What's the name?!" Someone yelled out in the crowd.

"Not yet!" Tazuna yelled back in response while laughing. "I have to- Hah!- Tell you some of the names I found last night!"

"Like what?!" Inari shouted.

"I read names like "'The Mega Bridge', The Bridge of Health, The Bridge that Gato tried to Stop but got Turned into a Stain'-"

"I liked that one." Psychosis muttered to the rest of the others next to him. "I labored over that name."

"'Bridge of Killer Instincts'!"

"What the fuck's wrong with my suggestion?" The nukenin grumbled to Fate. "You and I both wrote that one."

By now, the crowd was cracking up, save for those who had entered in their suggestions, fuelling the Bridge Builder's cackling. "'The Bridge that Allows me to get out of Here', 'Best Bridge', 'Master Bridge'…well actually, I wrote that one but it's funny in hindsight, eh?"

The crowd howled in their laughter before they settled down a little later. "But seriously folks, I got a note on the same piece of paper as a suggestion. I would have just used the name anyway, but I felt like I had to read the note to you all." He cleared his throat very audibly, before he began.

" _I haven't been around for long, so I wasn't present during Nami-no Kuni's heyday. I'm not a citizen, but I was able to witness Wave's turnaround from its oppressing and tribulations it suffered under Gato. I haven't done for Wave enough to be proud of, but I admire the land for its ability to emerge as somewhere stalwart, strong, but above all, I admire it for its resilence; to suffer, and to return even more robust than I have heard of it in the past."_

Tazuna turned over the note and continued reading from the back.

" _To be reduced to such a state under the thumb of one man and his lackeys, and to return as a land to be marveled at. It is a land of such, and it is my suggestion. Not on a whim, or personal fancy, but to describe it as what it is. The bridge will indicate as to what kind of place lies at its place of origin._

 _The Bridge of Resilience."_

The man came to an obvious stop, and stared at the silent crowd. "What?! You're supposed to clap, you dummies!"

After an embarrassed bout of slow clapping, it soon grew louder and louder as palms lit afire, and numerous shouts made in approval. When it died down after a rather lengthy while later, and a brief period of people asking among themselves who could have wrote it, Tazuna decided that he wasn't getting any younger.

"I don't have a ribbon to cut, so I have to do the next best thing. Psychosis, get up here and give me a bottle of saki."

"What makes you think that I do have one?!" The torture specialist wailed.

"Nothing makes me think that you _don't_. Now give it here."

Narburei shrugged before walking to the front of the crowd while unsealing a bottle of saki midway to the man. After handing it to the man, he merely wandered off to the side, not particularly caring to return to the center of the congregated group.

The bridge builder, after a moment's thought, opened the bottle of saki, took a swig, and then re-corked it. "Just to know what I'll miss." The man muttered. "Nami no Kuni, I now declare the Bridge of Resilience, open!" He smashed the bottle against the side of the bridge, while waving a hand forward as if he were exasperated with them. "Now all those itchin' to leave, or to commit suicide by jumping off over the railing, feel free to do so!"

"That's our cue to leave." Kurenai called out over the din of cheering. "All the ninja here! Get on the bridge! It's time to go!" She grabbed Naruto's shoulder who had been standing next to her, but he went up in a puff of smoke. "What? Kage bunshin? Where's Naruto?" She asked aloud to the others.

 **=X=X=**

His mental connection had been cut, and Kurama hadn't spoilt his location to any of his brothers. As of consequence, only Hinata had found him by pure chance, and it was purely by memory of his coming here, not because of her use of the byakugan. When she had made a remark about she had an idea on where to find him, Haku and the T13 members had joined her, and one of them told her that he was there, when they were close to the location.

"I remember." Psychosis stated. "We all do. But since Naruto's the main, he's more emotional than the rest of us."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Haku asked, befuddled.

"You're a smart girl. You'll figure it out."

They all continued walking, and soon they broke the treeline to find themselves on a bit of a flat-area that was located over a precipice. They were standing on a cliff, and all saw Naruto sitting on the edge with his legs dangling over the side.

"Naruto-kun? We've been looking all over for you!" The Hyuuga exclaimed. "It's time to-" She was about to continue but stopped as she recalled the significance of the place. She was sure that she had seen him grieving here the same night he had found out about his father's death. It could have been the rain, but more than likely, it was mixing in with his tears. "Is something wrong?"

"No." He answered without looking back.

"Naruto," Farsight hesitated, knowing that his original was more than likely in an emotional state. "We hope we're not interrupting anything, but we need to go."

"…"

"Naruto. You and I both know what you're doing." Psychosis blurted after a minute's worth of silence.

"He told me that you were the smartest. Maybe it's me now, but if you're so sure, tell me what I'm doing." Naruto muttered to those behind him. "Tell me, smart guy."

"You're trying to get closure."

Brown eyes flitted between both boys, before the owner started to connect the dots. "Master, we all offer our condolences, but you need to move on."

He turned savagely. "I'm trying to! Just leave- nah, forget it." He brought his legs up before rising, then dusted himself off. "It was a stupid idea. Let's just go."

Hinata was about to agree when she saw something come into being over the water. "Hmm?" The object wasn't there before, and practically wavered into existence like heat-lines one would see in the distance over a hot road. "What…or who is that?" She asked aloud, pointing to it.

All the others were about to leave when they turned to her, before looking to what they were pointing at. All of the boy's eyes widened, but only Naruto's were visible as he wasn't wearing any shades. "Oh…Kami…"

"What is it master?" Haku asked in alarm.

"Not _what_ is it! It's **who**!" Naruto exclaimed. He hurridly took off his bandana mask from around his neck and started waving it around like a signal. He was like a madman in doing so, and the girls wondered why he was carrying on like that. "Kaiza! Tou-san! TOU-SAN!"

The others gawked at him, before turning back to the apparent person in the boat rowing out to sea. "This is it people. Only Kaiza waved with a red rag, when other people use white." Psychosis muttered to all. "If that guy's Kaiza, I…I…think I might really go mental."

The person in the boat seemed to look around at Naruto waving at him, but distance between the two couldn't really tell the difference for details like facial features. The man quit his rowing, and retrieved a rag to wave back.

It was red.

"BYE TOU-SAN!" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs, still waving like a maniac.

If one listened carefully, which they all were, they heard a distant shout from the person saying 'Bye Naruto!' They were all shocked as the man continued waving for around half a minute more, before going back to his rowing.

And then his vehicle of travel, and all that the he was just wavered from sight, like dissipating steam.

Naruto started crying as he waved a few moments more, before ceasing. "Bye."

…

…

…

"He's dead. We all know he was," Narburei hazarded in speech as they walked back to the meeting place at the bridge. "We all saw him. We all heard him."

They nodded, although Naruto's was the most confident. "So…we're all crazy, or I really got what I wanted. I got some closure."

"…Or we're all crazy." Psychosis said firmly, in accordance to the first. "Anyway, your sensei is fit to have a cow. You don't have the time to talk this little incident with your family and all that-"

"I wasn't going to tell them. It was between me and him."

They all continued walking in silence until they made it back to the bridge. By now, all of the celebrating people had gone home, and all who were there were the family, Shino, Kurenai and Zabuza. The female teacher wasn't looking too pleased, but seemed fairly relieved that they didn't have to spend another day here because they found him too late. "Finally. It's time to go." She handed him his pack which he took gratefully.

"Hai, sensei."

Hinata took hers from Shino and put it on. "Arigato. So what happens now?"

"Farewells." The Aburame intoned.

"Yeah." Naruto drawled. "Kaa-chan, I'm going to miss you. Your cooking especially."

"Don't worry about that, Naruto-chan. Your brother that calls himself 'Farsight' is a good cook."

"Damn right I am." The sensory specialist piped up. "I've cooked things you wouldn't even dare dream of, lady."

"Like what?"

"I'm under oath not to tell any civilians."

Naruto waved him off. "Don't mind him. Oji-san, sayonara."

"You take care, brat. To be honest, I'm kinda glad you're leaving. You're always riding me about my drinking." The older man said, just before he was chastised verbally and physically by his daughter. Naruto smiled at the spectacle before he turned to Inari.

"Next time, eh otouto?"

The brothers hugged before Inari punched Naruto in the stomach. It was playful, and as of consequence, it didn't trigger the ninja's 'Reflex'; something only Haku took note of. "Don't take so long before 'next time.'"

The Uzumaki pretended to wheeze and nodded. "You hitting me in the gut only makes me want to come back sooner." He said sarcastically. "But I'll try, okay? Maybe I'll write letters. I'll do it first so you get my return address. How does that sound?"

"Sounds good. And bring back something nice on your next visit." Inari gushed.

Surge stepped forward to the two and handed Inari an animal-skin pouch. "Take this. Naruto wanted me to give you. But don't open it here. Do it at home."

Inari tried to get a feel of the contents but the skin of the bag was too thick and non malleable. "Alright. I hope it's not a prank though."

"You know me better than that!" 'I hope he doesn't freak out over the gold.' Naruto exclaimed with a grin, reassuring his brother. He strode off to his team, and they all started waving as they walked off "Bye everyone!"

"Bye Naruto!" "Bye sochi!" "Goodbye Naruto-nii!"

As the distance between them increased, Naruto forced himself to stare ahead of him. This wasn't going to be like last time. He would return someday. Also, there was no possible way this was like last time. Last time, it was just him (and Kurama, to be technical.) Now, it was he, his T13 brethren, Kurenai, Hinata, Shino and Zabuza. The last one made him somewhat confused, but thought nothing of it after a minute.

They walked on in silence. However, at the end of the bridge, they themselves said parting words to one another.

"Well, Naruto. Goodbye, and take care." Narburei said. "Stay in contact a bit more huh?"

"I will. Surge, Psychosis, Farsight, Fate, Doc. Sayonara." He looked to each of them in turn. They all nodded, before leaving in a shunshin of perfect accordance. 'Why do we even say goodbye out loud, huh? Mental links are the best.'

'Yeah. Anyway, we're going. Next time, yeah? Don't just call us when you in a tight spot next time.' Narburei called in thought before it faded like a distant echo.

And with that, they were truly gone.

"Your brothers are unusual." Haku stated simply. "Likeable, but unusual."

"They're about as unusual as you writing a note to go with your Bridge name suggestion." Naruto answered.

"How did you-"

"I've got a brain the size of Iron Country, is what I keep saying! And it was obvious. Anyway, shouldn't you be telling Zabuza goodbye? You do know that he's not going to Konoha, don't you?"

"That's right," the swordsman said. "This _is_ the other direction away from Kiri. You didn't expect me to go towards the armies of Kiri ninja just yet, did you Haku?"

"No, Zabuza-sama."

"Look. I'm not Zabuza-sama anymore to you. While I find your actions of practically selling yourself downright atrocious and humiliating, it doesn't mean I don't appreciate the lengths you'd go to just to save my hide. T-…thank you, Haku."

"Douitashimashite. But where will you go?"

"Somewhere else." The man answered dryly. "Take good care of the kid. If he mistreats you, I'll-"

"I won't, Momochi. You have my word." Naruto interjected solemnly.

"Good. Sayonara, Haku."

With a small tear-filled goodbye to the man who had given her purpose enough to live, she told him 'sayonara'; after which the man left in a water shunshin that soon vanished without a trace.

Hoping he wasn't sending a wrong signal, Naruto side-hugged the girl to reassure her. She mumbled her thanks to him, and noted how Hinata seemed to have been upset with what was happening between them. Not upset as in angry, but more as in disapproving, and yet hesitant to say why. Filing away her observation, she turned to the others. "Shall we go?"

 **=X=X=**

It took a mere exercise of veto power and the insinuation that Haku was in fact someone captured. It was fortuitous that Naruto had relieved Haku of all of her weapons (senbon) pre-arrival to the village, and they were able to pull off the façade. All in all, the chunin guards weren't gullible, but a story that sounded so plausible, and fantastic enough to include Zabuza Momochi felt like something only The Hokage should hear; their ears weren't that 'good' enough, so they let them through.

As they walked into the village, Yuki was taken aback by the sheer size and amount of bustle of the village. She had never been to the Kirigakure itself; only born in the countryside far from its outskirts. So a village of this magnitude, even the very gates itself felt larger than life. "Wow. It's so… it's so…"

"Extravagant? Opulent? Substantial? Voluminus? Considerable? Tremendous? Major? Tectonic?" The Uzumkai offered off in a rattle.

"What does 'tectonic' mean?"

"Having a large effect or impression."

"Then hai. I mean…all of those things? Half the words I don't know the meaning of, but if they are similar in meaning, then you finished my observation."

"That this is a big ass village? Hai." Naruto answered. "If all goes well, I'll make a clone to give you a tour later."

"That would be most appreciated, although I'm not to depart a far distance from your side."

Naruto sighed. "It was worth a try."

She seemed to have been trying to see everything at once as they walked, craning her neck to look this way and that. She was like a curious eight-year-old, but her behavior was understandable to those like her new 'master', and the jounin teacher who cautioned her to behave more like a docile prisoner, and not like an enemy ninja looking for cracks. Such a warning was well received, and she took it in stride.

Soon, they arrived at the Hokage's tower and made their way inside. Naruto told her to be as meek as possible unless it was safe otherwise as they went up the steps and knocked at the door. Hardly had Kurenai done so when they heard the Sandaime's voice inviting them inside by name. As ever, he knew that they were coming. It could be that he was using his crystal ball to monitor them inside the village, or the simpler fashion of knowing everyone's knocks separate, like a signature.

The jounin opened the door and took point to head inside first. "Kon-nichi wa, Hokaga-sama."

"Ah, Kurenai-san. Kon-nichi wa. You've returned from a productive C ranked mission, I take it?"

Shino, of all people, started to chuckle a bit, before he brought himself under control. Kurenai, upon hearing that question, had her stoic countenance fall into that of something akin to depression and disappointment. But who could say for sure?

"And who is the young lady behind Naruto? The one in the pink kimono?"

Naruto thanked his lucky stars that he had made the subservient girl get out of her battle dress, lest she ignite some confrontation on a misunderstanding. A harmless civilian wear like the one she was now in was sure to send only the 'right' messages.

"My name is Haku, Hokage-sama." She answered politely, after coming forward from behind the Uzumaki to his right side.

"That is your name, I'm sure." The man's eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly. "But _who_ are you?"

The ice-user began to get extremely nervous, and after a brief moment of hesitation, she answered as best she could, hoping that she wouldn't be antagonized. "I'm one of the enemies Team 8 crossed, but-"

"!" Naruto felt 'Reflex' kicking in and felt that he was about to dodge something. He knew that he had done nothing wrong, so why would-…and then he saw kunais about to embed themselves in Haku from the air above, a mere half meter away. He paused for the blink of an eyelash, and in the hopes that she'd live, he pushed her out of the way with as best he could with his right arm.

The sound of the steel of ninja knives slammed into flesh was like that of an axe chopping soggy wood. There was also the sound of someone tumbling away, and Naruto only paid that sound any mind, ignoring the fact that there were now a half dozen kunai sticking out of his arm. "Agh! D-damn! What the hell?!"

He unconsciously turned on his dojutsu and every combatant became lit up in a gray outline. He became shocked at the sight of anbu hidden in the room all over, but as he felt the rush of battle plans course through his mind, he gave himself over to it, hoping that it would not let him down, just like the first time.

As he took a dashing step towards her, he felt his own injured and bloody arm swiping across his own chest while taking out his tanto from over his shoulder with the other. It must have discretely disabled his gravity seal, he suddenly found himself in front of Haku just as she was gathering her wits about the situation. Just as she was about to try and intercept all threats to her master's safety, he instead did it for her as he repelled kunai and shuriken from all over with his tanto and somehow, found himself parrying a katana slash with his tanto hilt; the offender was a neko-masked anbu that was about to liberate Haku's life from her, via the neck.

And then Fire Shadow re-discovered his own existence.

"Everyone! Cease and desist!" The man's thundering voice boomed.

Naruto quickly reverted his eyes to his ceruleans and pushed away the katana from off of his tanto. "You tell 'em! But what the hell just happened, huh?! She said 'but'! Can't she finish a goddamn sentence before you try to kill her?!"

The anbu woman quit her gawking at the boy who had the strength and speed to stop her sword with a mere standard-issue tanto and returned her sword to its sheath. With a quick bow of her head to the Sandaime, she noiselessly retreated back to her hiding place, and then the quiet was lost as most started to yell to make themselves heard.

Without a word, Haku took Naruto's arm gently, before removing the kunai from them as best she could. All eyes turned to her as she then performed a **Shosen** to begin healing the boy's wounds that he had received for her sake. They began closing up rapidly, largely due to the fact of Naruto's vitality as an Uzumaki, not to mention the fact that he was a jinchuriki. She was done in just under thirty seconds, and all was quiet as she went about her task. When she was finished, all turned to face the Hokage when he cleared his throat.

"I…apologize for my anbu's mistreatment, young lady. Now, who _did_ you say you were again?"

"My name is Haku. I'm one of the former enemies that crossed Team 8, but now, I'm Naruto's servant, fit to use as he wishes."

The aged man was about to light his pipe to smoke, but decided against it; perhaps the day he had ingested too much of the acrid tobacco had finally come. "Dear Kami. I'm afraid that this was **not** a normal C ranked mission…?"

"And you'd be correct, Hokage-sama." Kurenai stated. "This is a rather _long_ story. There aren't any counts of insubordination for Naruto, but I'd suggest we all get some refreshments."

The Hokage nodded, before charging one of his anbu to inform his assistant downstairs to prepare refreshments as such, as well as clear him of any responsibilities and tasks for the rest of the time being. Without further ado, he instructed the jounin to tell her tale, while wondering why Naruto's eyes appeared strange for a moment…

…

…

…

 **(Three Hours Later)**

The Hokage looked up from his writing to the others who appeared completely relaxed. "From all the summarized entries, I believe that I can plot the entire course of time for the whole problematic mission. Let's see…hmm…Team 8 is interrupted mid-journey by bandits, most of which are killed. Tazuna's drinking had delayed them for the night, which was fortuitous as Zabuza Momochi, the 'Demon of the Hidden Mist', was waiting for the client to kill him. He and his group departed in the early morning and unknowingly had Team 8 follow slowly in their footsteps to Wave."

Kurenai and Haku nodded. When he saw this, he nodded as well before continuing.

"There are many embroiling emotions leading up to the point of becoming very angst-filled, due to Naruto finding about Shino's spying on him, and nearly killing him with a **Gokakyu** that by all means, large and powerful enough to raze a tree to ashes in a split second, and was seen as a large conical flame from a lengthy distance away."

Shino muttered apologies to Naruto, and the Uzumaki did likewise.

"Naruto ran off into the woods to sort through his emotions, and meets Haku for the first time. It was her first intention to cunningly derive information from him, but there was sincerity, according to her, at the very least. Further along the line, the next day, the entire household is placed under a mock form of house-arrest, under threat of Zabuza himself, Haku, and the Demon Brothers, Gozu and Meizu. The act was supplemented by a 'deep mist that handicapped both kikaichu and the byakugan'."

All was silent as he read on.

"After four days of attrition, Naruto and Kurenai planned to distract the offenders at the front of the home, while Shino and Hinata to escort the family at the back. All fought, but at the end of it all, they had to retreat due to casualties, and the complication of barb-and-razor wired fence penning them in. That same day, there is more…unforeseen drama, and that's putting it lightly."

"Good grief," Naruto muttered. "That's lightly?"

The Hokage ignored him. "After Naruto's claim that he 'meditated', he drilled Shino with questions for his 'diagnosis'. After that, Naruto has a spat with Kurenai, upon which he admits to being the demon container of The Nine Tailed Fox; he then allows the Kyuubi to take control of him, and said tailed beast demonstrates 'decent' Oratory prowess, and speaks to all in turn. The Kyuubi also apologizes to Kurenai one last time, and then his presence is relinquished. Naruto wakes up an hour later."

Naruto nodded vigorously. "And he meant every word."

The Hokage sighed, before continuing. "Naruto then plans with everyone, save for Kurenai, that people were coming to help them. There were five of them the next morning; those five people helped the house's occupants to escape, and fed their hunger with food that Naruto only asked them about the day before. The fight kills the Demon Brothers, stuns Zabuza, but Haku escapes Raiton injury by using a body flicker to get into the wooden house."

All listened intently. But in the meantime, all Naruto could do was wait for the end, and the maelstrom of confusion that would accompany it.

"Those, save for the healer who rescued them stayed behind to capture Haku for some questioning, as well as to finish off Zabuza, but all is interrupted by twelve mist Hunter nin, who went versus all present. Naruto and the healer became alarmed and went to join the fight, leaving the rest in the cave to finish recuperating. After a bout of fighting to help his comrades, all six of the boys in uniform defeated their opponent, and were about to depart to the family to help them avoid the Kiri nin, when the young lady here pleaded with Naruto and his comrades to fight alongside herself and Zabuza, because they were fighting under certain handicaps."

"Hai." Was all Haku could, and would say.

"She, in her emotional moment, had sold herself to Naruto for their services, and Naruto unknowingly accepted the bargain. They then helped to fight the ninja to the death, upon which Kurenai killed the last while using a genjutsu to hide herself from the water sharks preoccupied with the others above. After that, all returned to the cave to fight off all of Gato's assorted crooks, that came up to be 106 in number, those killed and unconscious. Zabuza himself came to help, and after all crisis was averted, Naruto and his comrades put Gato on 'trial' before torturing the man. For the sake of younger ears, only Naruto will tell me afterwards what he did."

Naruto told him that he would, and the Sarutobi continued reading.

"Zabuza then killed Gato, and all of Wave had a period of renovation, construction to the bridge, health care and festivities with the use of increased manpower, courtesy of Naruto and his comrades who created clones. The bridge was then named 'The Bridge of Resilience' at Haku's anonymous suggestion, and all parted ways; Zabuza to his own, and Naruto's comrades to their own, and you lot came home, with Haku in tow."

"Yeah." Naruto groaned.

"You're all dismissed. Shino, Hinata, you may be excused, with signed statements as to testimonies that will be written by Kurenai-san and Naruto. Kurenai-san, you may leave, but I want a full report in three days. Naruto and Haku, you shall stay a while. _We need to talk_."

Kurenai wasn't feeling celebratory that Naruto was likely to receive flak from the Hokage. Not because that she had her duties, but it was due to Naruto why everyone actually **lived** through the mission. Perhaps she'd even find the time to formally apologize to him. Perhaps. If she didn't become completely buried in writing her mission testimony, she would.

All of those told to leave did so to go home, and left Naruto and Haku seated on chairs in front of the Hokage's desk. Both waited patiently for the man to have a highly probable upset reaction to all he had heard, but all the man did was sigh before he lit his pipe to smoke.

"Naruto…"

"Hai, Hokage-sama?"

"I'm so…very…tired. How much have you hidden from me?"

"A lot." Naruto said stoically.

"I suppose that's the very same for me as well." The man said grimly. "I won't ask. I'll simply say that you're entitled to your secrets, as do the rest of us. But tell me, how much can you trust me enough to tell me?"

"…" Naruto studied the man carefully. "I can tell you about my family in Wave. That brief time of happiness during my childhood." As he predicted, the man's countenance fell as he mentioned it, and tried to amend it. "Except for you, Ayame-neechan and Teuchi-oji, I suppose. It all started when I was six and met Kyuubi for the first time…"

…

…

…

"So that time when I thought you were acting strange, was all in all, a youki bunshin that the Kyuubi created as your double?"

"Yeah. That's right." Naruto grunted. "But I can only tell you about the family. Can't really tell you anything else."

"I was going to ask you why you had these vast emotional changes, how you've become so well versed in battlefield tactics and might and skill. You even blocked a sword from a strong kenjutsu user like Neko."

"The very same you sent to force-feed me vegetables?"

Neko chuckled a bit from her hiding place, but only she herself heard her own action.

"Hai…and your so-called brethren. By all counts, you said that these were adopted as your brethren-"

"I did. They weren't originally."

"Are they _clones_?"

"No." Naruto answered truthfully. 'They're not just that.' "They're living, human beings, and I adopted as my brothers, like Inari. They hide their faces because their identity is always at risk. People would target them in particular. Incognito for action; without masks, live normal lives." 'For the most part. And it's plausible enough to be true.'

"I see. I won't pry."

"Yup. You can never have too much family."

"Are there any others? Kurenai said that all of you had 'T13' over your backs. I thought that you were going through a phase when I saw you with that writing across the upper back of your clothes, but it was uncanny for all six of you to have the same writing."

"Hai. But not thirteen." 'Yes! Nailed it! I don't have thirteen of them. It's twelve.'

The man decided that he needed to smoke to help alleviate his growing headache. With a sigh to exhale the smoke, he resumed. "And now of Zabuza's former apprentice. Frankly, I would have expected you to fight the anbu."

"I was instructed by my master to be meek, in the hopes that I did not offend. I can understand why your gaurds would go to the lengths they did to ensure your safety." She answered matter-of-factly, now seeing that the Hokage was a most agreeable person, and easy to reason with. "It was an honest misunderstanding, and I now see why Naruto-sama wanted me to wear civilian clothing, rather than my usual battle-clothing. Nor did I have any of my weapons, namely senbon."

"You fight with senbon?"

"Hai. I consider myself an effective user of it."

"We digress, surely." Naruto spoke up. "I'm sure that your main focus was to decide if she were to remain with me, not on what her fighting skills include. That's minor in priority."

"Hai, hai. That's true, Naruto-kun." The Sarutobi affirmed. "But why did you, of all people, accept her as a servant?"

"We can talk about the morals afterward, in private. Can she stay with me?" Naruto asked bluntly.

"She can. There's no rule against having a servant. How old are you, Haku?"

"I'm just on fifteen."

"And Naruto's fourteenth birthday is close to two months away. You're older than him, and you don't find this…unusual and bizarre?" Hiruzen pressed, trying to feel her out for any cracks whatsoever.

"Not in the least."

"Naruto's place is rather…just cozy enough for one person." The man treaded carefully. "Where will you sleep-"

"I'm moving out." Naruto said shortly. "If I have to have a servant, then I won't have her uncomfortable."

"Don't let me put you out-!"

"Nonsense. Sad to say, I'm cashing in on the Demon Brother's bounties which were your associates, my supposed A rank pay for this mission, and…a bank account that was opened in my name. I should be roughly a billion ryo richer. Gato was nice enough to give it to me."

The Hokage got out of his seat without a word, and strode to his window where he looked out. 'He has no idea how rich he already was due to his heritage. Perhaps his current wealth is for the best. He's grown smarter, and I trust him to not do anything foolish. And he deserves to have some material happiness, considering that he had had to do without it for so long. Hai…It's for the best. For now, at least. If and when he finds out his ancestry...

After about five minutes of pondering, he returned to his seat. "You'll have to pardon that. It was a lot to take in, I'm sure that you're aware."

"I'll be sharing it. Anyway, I'll just move into a larger apartment; I'm not going to splurge it all away. Haku can have her own bedroom, I'll have mine-"

" **No! Damn it boy! Sleep together!"**

"Shut up!" Naruto struck the flat of his stomach to an effort to quell his inner beast. "Damn perve!"

"The Kyuubi is offering lewd advice again?" Haku asked.

"Yeah. Oh uh, gomen, Jiji." He stared at the man, who stared back. "You knew from the report that we can talk to each other. Hell, maybe he can talk to you later, if you want."

The Sandaime nodded…extremely slowly. "Err, hai…So you'll move out with immeadiate effect? It's rather late now, but I'll be sure to give you apartment options in the morning. So you will sleep in your current apartment for tonight, at the very least."

Naruto blinked slowly as Kurama laughed in a cheer. "Alright. Haku, I suppose now you can tell him what you're capable of, and then you'll have to give us some privacy. Saru-jiji looks like he still wants to chew me out."

…

…

…

"So you're actually doing this for _her_ sake? Of all the-"

"It's true!" Naruto exclaimed. "He told me that because of her mentality, she can't live without a purpose. It is kinda his fault, but I gave my word that I'll care for her, and I will! She can even quit anytime she wants! Its all in her favor, and I'm not telling her to do anything improper."

"Oh really?" Hiruzen snapped. "You're also entitled to her virginity. That's rather low, Naruto."

"I didn't demand those terms, she volunteered it! I told her that's if we ever actually end up in relationship with each other. I have my morals. Basically, she'll live with me for five years, maybe I'll tell her to do the dishes every now and again, and then everything will be normal!" Naruto said loudly, as if trying to make himself believe his own statements.

"Oh! Of all the naivety! And after five years, who's to say that she won't find her life purposeless once more and then kill herself?! Did you think of that?"

"Of course I did! Well, actually, I'm hoping that she'll develop interests over time, realize that it sucks being subservient to anyone, then she'll live her own life! I'm doing this for her, and I consider her my friend!"

"Just a friend? To get your arm riddled with kunai, and fight off anbu operatives to save her life?"

"Need I remind you of Kimyō Town when everyone was bailing from a sinking ship? I stuck my neck out to save Iruka, who I look up to, and Ko, someone I hardly even know. Who's to say that I can't help a friend, huh?" Naruto argued. "Is this the only issue?"

"No. I also have to talk to you about what you did to Gato."

"There's nothing to talk about, 'cause he deserved it." The Uzumaki said firmly.

"No doubt that he did, given all the info that Haku gave us about his tendencies and dealings. On that note, I'll have to get the man's accounts sorted out."

"One of my comrades from Wave sorted through that already. Even his human trafficking had its own bank account and that was dissolved to give all the money to the victims, and their families if they had perished. The last thing left is his building; that will be either scuttled by the people of Wave for their own use of the things inside, or Tazuna-ojisan who claimed that he was going to make it his building, contracting mason and construction jobs and whatnot. Go commercial, was what he said."

"Even though you yourself tortured a man with your comrades by removing his organs and feeding it to dogs before his very eyes, it's fair to say that this C ranked mission turned A worked out for the best." The Sarutobi said grimly.

"Hai. It did."

"You've changed a lot, Naruto."

"Yeah." He got up robotically, cracking his joints. "I changed a whole lot. See you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow."

 **Holy crap, this chapter. On second thought, it wasn't that holy.**

 **This chapter needs/needed a lot of work…I deleted, I pressed backspace, I clicked 'cut'. After all of that, a pile of crap ended up being half a pile of crap. Maybe I'm selling myself short…I dunno.**

 **Anyway, I can't recall when was the last time I did it, so I'll do it now.**

 **Please start reviewing people! You've seen how the Wave Arc had been pulled together, and how…** _ **original**_ **I made it come out, despite being used a lot in fanfiction. Wasn't my way a new way to read it? C'mon, admit it! Aw!**

 **The theme that extended from chapter 18 to this one is 'Family'. Do I have to go into a convoluted explanation to tell you how important Family is? Tell 'em you love them everyday, and that no one is to tell them any different. You never know that it might be the last thing you say to them, be it you or them who happen to pass on from this life. Believe me.**

 **-His team and the Hokage (and Haku) knows that the T13 exist. That's as far as that goes. They have some suspicions, but nothing that Naruto can't dance his way around with 'tricky speech' and 'plausible deniability.'**

 **-They now know that he has an adopted family in Wave.**

 **-They know** _ **nothing**_ **about his abilities, save for Haku who knows the bulk of it. Honestly, I made Naruto tell her 'cause she's pretty observant, and she would have found out anyway. She does not know what his eyes do. To be specific, it could be argued that he told her of some talents, and that he has the ability to dodge attacks he himself wasn't aware of in the first place. Also, I should mention that when Psychosis was in the house with Haku, he was wearing his mask. She doesn't know any of the boys true faces. None of them know.**

 **Its been messy, but I had always intended to make Naruto have to spoil some elements of his plans and efforts during the Wave Arc. All in all, this was fun for me to think up, plan, but not too fun to type. Carpel tunnel syndrome, ay ay ay!**

 **That's it ladies and gentlemen. Until the next (UNIVERSAL) update.**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	30. Chapter 30

**Breaking Limits**

 **I'm back. UNIVERSAL UPDATE, y'all.**

 **Gee, thanks a lot people. Seeing some reviews now, and all know that I answered all. I'm glad to know that his most recent ability was well received. Also, someone mentioned that it was like the Eagle Vision from Assassin's Creed. (I kicked myself for not remembering that one.) Although it uses the outliner by using highlight shading, there is no dark background setting though, and the limiter of the range of sight. Like the whole vagueness with distance type of deal. Everything's normal, just add the outline around the things and people of interest.**

 **Huh? What I was recuperating from? Um...the thing is, I accidentally face-palmed myself with a goddamned brick when I read one of those 'that kind of moment' type of deal in a recent fic. No? You don't believe it? Well, it's one of the reasons. I don't wanna tell you the other one.**

 **I've had some fun thinking up jutsu names for the T13. Honestly, their ninja-art's going to kick ass. Like…like…hmm…I can't compare it to anything.** _ **Those**_ **things you're used to will have to be compared to the Ninpo…it's the new measuring post. At least in my mind, that is.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I just don't, m'kay? Really.**

 **30.**

He started down the steps confidently, and with a most assured reason why. He finished making his way downstairs and saw her seated on a waiting bench across from the receptionist. She still appeared docile, but he kept note that she was a splendid actress when she needed to, and absent-mindedly hoped that this wouldn't come back to stab him in the back. As he approached her, she got up, and welcomed him with a hopeful 'well?'.

He retrieved the letter-sized document from out of an envelope he had with him. He gave it to her, and she quickly read through it. "May I see it when you're finished?"

She finished reading it quickly when a grateful look graced her face. "I'm…registered."

He took it from her and briefly read it once to dedicate it all to memory. "Yep. Seems so, Haku. It still looks like a temporary thing, so you'll need to have this with you until you're fully registered as a member of Konohagakure. He'll have the official thing done up within a couple days through the right people, and you should have your identification card by then, too. You're a civilian, until they can deliberate what to do with you if you still want to be a kunoichi."

"Arigato, master."

The boy ignored the gawking of the receptionist and quickly ushered the girl outside. "Yeah. Douitashimashite. Kuso, I don't know how everyone's going to take this 'master' thing. Five years, huh?"

"Hai," she answered. "Perhaps…this means I will not be hunted anymore?"

Naruto face-palmed himself with the heel of his palm. He had had his suspicions as to why Zabuza had insisted that he keep her. Now she herself saying that merely supported it; to not be hunted purely for the fact of being a bloodline-holder by Kiri aggressor Nins. She was practically in a fort against such, both physically and politically. To try and antagonize her now would be an act of war. Surely, they couldn't fight one internationally, as well a civil war within their own borders. "Sure. You're safe with me-…" He mentally kicked himself as he caught her questioning stare. "Safe here, I mean."

"…Oh. Now, where do you live, master?"

He groaned. Right then and there, he decided to not pay that 'master' deal any more mind. If he questioned it from now until she no longer had to do so, he'd only be giving himself a full head of gray hair before he was even twenty-years-old properly. "Follow me. We're going to have to walk instead of roof-hopping, 'cause you're not a registered nin, and other numerous reasons, like disturbing those with thin roofs."

She nodded as she began walking behind him. The sun was quickly setting in the west, and as such, business places lit up their traditionalized lamps that hung from the eaves of the roofs. Most were yellow, but alternate shades made some cast a green glow, or the increasingly common red glows. Haku thought it to be eye-catching and alluring as they traversed through the streets. There were quite a few people active at this point in time, making the usual amount of merry at drinking, mirth-filled laughter, gambling…and the usual bastard trying to pick up a chick even when he wasted.

"Oi! Purrty gurl!" One such man called to someone far ahead of the pair. "I'm all the man that your stick of a guy ain't," he drawled out in an inebriated slur, obviously in a tone that told all present that he had had more than enough to drink.

There was a brief and dramatic-sounding slap, the shattering of glass; then the sounds of blows landing before the man resumed his brash and offensive calls. Naruto glanced back at Haku and recalled what she had told him in the forest, and wondered what he was to do. He was by no mean a coward, but he did not eagerly seek war as did some people.

Haku didn't think anything of that. All she noticed presently were numerous glares and hissing whispers leveled at Naruto. She knew that he was the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, and from Zabuza had said, the beast that had nearly completely razed the village around thirteen to fourteen years before. While Naruto himself vouched for the beast to not be a bad character and she believed him (for the most part), she figured that these people did not know that Naruto and the beast was on good terms, and could perhaps 'apologize' to them.

'What world do I live in?' She thought grimly. 'Of course it wouldn't be that simple. They've probably lost property or loved ones to it, no matter how 'innocent' the Kyuubi could be. They could care less, and my master's the medium for their rage, indirectly. Or directly, if these people are exceedingly ignorant and believe Naruto-sama himself to be the beast.'

This was unfortunately proven true while they continued as she saw a glass bottle heading for her master's head. Instantly, she created a one-handed handseal in her right hand which was still at her side. She created a small and thin but strong flat piece of ice at the apex of the glass bottle's flight. It was so subtle that only a few (jounin, in general) could notice a phenomenon like that, and she utilized it perfectly in a crowd of these people.

The ice was not like a stopping-wall. It was parallel with the bottle, and as the bottle reached it, she manipulated the ice to turn up a bit so the bottle slid off with its original momentum like a ramp and continued going further. Instead of coming down unto Naruto, it continued moving _up_ a bit and crashing into a wall on Naruto's far side. The ice was then relinquished as a fine mist that could be barely seen.

"Nice trick," Naruto muttered to her, surprising the ice-user. It had all been done in his blind spot as the boy had continued staring ahead of him while the bottle approached him from his 'eight o' clock' in direction. "I thank you, but it was unnecessary. 'Reflex'."

"…" She caught the hint, but she still shook her head. "It's my duty." She answered firmly.

"Now you're being a bit too protective of me. In any case, I fear that you may have made things worse." Naruto intoned. "We should hurry. Just don't try to anything ninja related. They're dumb sometimes, and you're not a licensed ninja."

"Why?"

"That demon brat just used demon magic!" A fat drunken man slurred in exclamation. "I swears I jus' saw it!"

Naruto and Haku both sweat-dropped lightly at the level of stupidity just heard in the man's yell. It didn't last, however, as what the man just shouted over the din was passed all around the crowd. The Uzumaki decided to make haste, grabbed Haku's wrist and tugged on it to emphasize what he earlier said. "C'mon. While they haven't specifically located us yet."

She allowed him to pull her and he weaved through the crowd with all dexterity he possessed. He managed to maneuver them both for another twenty-five meters, when the earlier person from the beginning who was making potshot calls easily spotted Haku in her pink kimono, and-

"Hey, you! In the pink! Wanna come back to my place to play 'hide the beef'? You can't lose; there's only three places you'll need ta look!"

Naruto would have knocked the man's head sideways just for the worst pickup line ever, but gritted his teeth through it. If Haku wouldn't make a big deal out of it, then he wouldn't either.

"She's got a mouse for a man..." The over-muscular man mumbled.

Naruto gripped the girl's wrist tightly just to make sure she didn't act up. Perhaps she could ignore affronts to herself, but was perhaps a bit too overprotective of him, as she had demonstrated a bare minute before. He turned his head to her to give her a shake of the head, but it was his first mistake. The man saw Naruto's face as he turned his head, and if Naruto was sure of one thing, was that anyone could identify him for his whisker marks.

"Hey, that's the brat…that's the demon brat!" The man yelled. Everyone who had been ignoring the man's behavior was suddenly responsive as all eyes turned to the pair who had been trying to inconspicuously hurry home.

"What?!" A woman exclaimed in question. "What's he doing to that poor girl?!"

"He's dragging her off wit' him!"

"Someone save the girl!" A passerby raised the cry. The heavily-muscled man grinned widely in self accomplishment, and decided to make himself known to the whiskered boy via bruises and scars…and wrap up the night by getting laid.

"Heh heh. Time to teach this demon kid what happens when he gets out of line."

"I've my rights. Go buy time with a hooker or something, and leave us alone," Naruto answered in a monotone. This only served to incinerate the smidgen of patience the man ever had, and he grabbed both Naruto and Haku's wrists, and forcefully wrenched the hands apart. Naturally, Naruto could have held on, but decided against it; he hadn't been assaulted in a long time, and he was wondering how far these people would actually go. Haven't they heard of how he dealt with Mizuki? Training ground 4? **Kimyō Town** , for Kami's sake?! Perchance they were just ignorant…or just mentally challenged. Maybe all that he did were only known to ninja, but surely, there should have been some rumors that ran amongst the civilian population.

The man held Naruto's arm and about to just crack his wrist, when Naruto pulled the man forwards to himself, and the larger individual took a thrown glass bottle to his shoulder. The bottle, while it hurt, it merely bounced off the man's flesh like a pebble off of a brick house, although there was the dull soundld of a smack. Naruto blinked disinterestedly.

"Kuso. If only the woman over there had thrown it higher, I could have made her hit you in the head."

The man grabbed Naruto's throat and clenched on it while lifting him up. For the life of him, Naruto wondered how so many people in the street could just stare at a grown man strangle a thirteen-year-old like an everyday occurrence. He was certain that Haku had taken what he said to heart about not doing anything along the lines of being ninja-related, and watched silently as he was being choked.

He hesitated for another five seconds, just to make sure of those facts.

One, she was very devout to him, in no doubt. But she obeyed his instructions to the letter.

Two, no one was showing any sympathy, nor were they about to assist him.

'Ah well.' Naruto lifted both of his arms from his sides, and slowly but deliberately, pried the man's fingers from off of his throat and let himself fall unto the ground. "That's enough of that."

The man made a straight punch at Naruto's face but the boy merely tilted his head to avoid it. "Everyone! Listen up!" The Uzumaki yelled. "I have never picked a fight with anyone!"

He had to dodge a great many of thrown objects that could at the very least, mess up his clothing, and at the worst, given him a concussion. "Liar!" Was the general shout that went up.

"Shut up!" He roared. They only decreased in volume, but all could still hear him. "I mind my own business! But when you cross me, I'll tell you to stop! You do it again, I'll warn you to stop! If you continue, I'll **make** you stop!"

"He can't do anything!" An old woman yelled. "Someone kill the bastard who murdered my only family!"

And that was enough to set off the antsy crowd into a fighting medley: Naruto versus the 'righteous anger' of the villagers.

In quick thinking, he placed his left hand in his pocket, and about to make a fist with his right. After a brief hesitation, he reopened his fist to a flat palm; a fist would still be overkill to these people. This was only the 'telling' phase anyhow. He'd use only one hand (palm) to establish that their might, even as a crowd, was inferior to his.

Ducking a thrown rock, he pushed away a middle-aged man and he was caught by others as he backpedaled to regain balance. Said catchers then picked up nearby brooms that were leaned against a shop. Naruto decided to save that fact for last, but briefly entertained the idea of using his brand new ability.

'Nah, they'd probably say I have demon eyes or some shit like that. Besides, the secret of it would get out.' Naruto mused as he palm-thrusted the muscular man in the gut and the man fell on his butt. By now, Naruto turned to the broom-handlers and as one of them swung his, Naruto caught it at the end, before jabbing the person with the other end even as he held it. It took him at his biceps and hurt him terribly. Naruto then yanked it away and swung it away unto the rooftop of one of the nearby buildings.

"Naruto-sama?" Haku asked urgently.

"No, Haku. Just don't try to help right now. Please? I really don't want you to get into trouble, especially since you're not registered," Naruto spoke evenly. He allowed the second broom user to swing his broom at him sideways, and it broke on the lateral side of his arm, just five inches shy of his elbow.

The broken bit now forgotten, the man tried to stab Naruto with the jagged end, but Naruto merely sidestepped it, and at the same time, dodged a thrown brick which slammed into the broom-user's side that was originally aimed at Naruto's back.

The man howled in pain and fell unto the ground, scream-crying and clutching his side. Naruto ignored it as the muscular man got back up and tried to inflict injury on the blond via a forward-toe kick to his groin; the man fought rather like a construction worker, namely pure muscle that lacked real damage by trying to use overwhelming force. Naruto batted the foot away with a back-handed slap, and while the man staggered on his standing leg, the whiskered boy rushed to his side. After quickly stooping, he grabbed the man's standing ankle, and yanked it towards himself. The man fell unto the ground and felt his wind knocked out from under him in one solid release and glared at the boy who made a fool out of him.

Naruto was completely emotionless as he released the limb to half-catch a brick-sized rock that would have smashed his face. As the rock made it to his palm, he altered the direction of the rock by pushing it to the side in a veer. It soon decreased in speed midflight and dropped unto a man's foot…the very first with the hurt upper-arm from the broom.

A large knife, courtesy of a 'professional' street-level cook was thrown to the downed muscular man to aid him. By now, Haku had allowed herself to be pulled to the side by a 'concerned' village woman, and now watched the events unfold. She wasn't learning anything in particular, besides that of the Uzumaki making the villagers beat up one another and themselves. A bit more than just regular street brawling, yes, but why the villagers persisted, she had no idea. He was using only the palm of one hand, after all. Didn't they realize how much he was holding back?

The man took up the knife and grinned. "Heh heh. Let's see how tough you are now, demon, when it's blade against flesh."

"You do realize that I'm a ninja, and it's expected of me to carry a number of edged weapons?" Naruto asked in a deadpan. "What makes you think that I don't have knives as well, huh?"

The man paid it no mind as he slashed at the boy with it. Naruto practically took his time get out of the way easily. This only served to make the man angrier, and the boy more eager to wrap up this little 'conflict'.

He would still use the flat of his palm.

Blade against flesh? The edge of his palm would serve him just as well, and send his message across.

 _He was not to be trifled with_.

Naruto dodged another slash, and chopped the man's wrist to knock the weapon from his grasp. Settling in to finish the 'conflict', Naruto made an extra-forceful thrust into the man's stomach with the heel of his palm. The man fell wheezing unto his knees, and after dodging the final stone, Naruto guided the rock to the man's forehead with his palm behind the rock while it was mid-flight. With a jarring impact, it drew blood as the man gave a throaty scream. That vocalism was cut short as Naruto slashed with the fingers of his flat hand across the man's cheek, laying it open from the side to the mouth by a measurement of two inches. Blood rushed from it in a welling-up, but Naruto merely sidestepped a bit to the left and smashed the heel of his palm with a swing unto the man's nose, breaking his probable one good feature.

"He never even closed his fist!" An elder man exclaimed.

The man fell unto his side and rapidly turning the ground around his head red while screamed for his face. Without even a backwards glance, Naruto merely went back over to Haku, beckoned to her, and both left the now silent would-be mobbers to pull themselves together after what they had just seen.

 **=X=X=**

"Does that happen often?"

"No. In fact, they haven't tried to get physical with me since I was ten. Well, they might've tried, but the Hokage's Anbu countered them without me even seeing it."

They finished making their way his home, amidst a myriad of debauchers that ran amok in his district. Entering the building, they both skipped up steps to get to his apartment. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief upon entry, seeing that his apartment was in the same shape that he left it. It was clean, at the very least, and anything she saw now wouldn't matter, as they were moving out the next day, anyway.

"Welcome to home-sweet-home." He welcomed with a half-grin. He took her stoic features as a sign of disapproval, but she soon smiled a bit.

"It's fine."

"Really?"

"It's better than most places in which I've had to sleep in the past," she admitted as she wandered around idly, taking in everything. "I can't even find something to pick up after you."

He rolled his eyes. She really was taking this 'servant/slave' thing a bit too serious.

"I'll see what there is to cook." She mumbled half to herself as she wandered to the fridge in the corner.

Naruto cursed to himself, nearly drawing her eye to his fit. He hadn't been 'shopping' in ages. He always ate out, so his fridge had only been containing water and some juice that was sure to have gone vinegary by now. Before he could make up an excuse for her to not open the refrigerator, she did.

"Master? There's nothing in here."

He groaned especially loud at this. "I know-"

"Hold on. There's an envelope here in the fridge-door." She took out said envelope, and looked at both sides. "It's addressed to you."

"Don't open that!" He exclaimed. "It might be a trap!" He was beside her in an instant and grabbed it from her. He was about to simply throw it out, but briefly called to mind that placing a trap inside a letter envelope _inside_ his fridge was pretty farfetched. Who would-

He sighed, before handing it to her. "It's fine."

She raised a questioning eyebrow before taking it from him. "If it really is a trap, are you trying to dispose of me?"

"No. I'm beside you, aren't I? If there's actually something, the proximity would catch me as well."

She nodded. It was a fair point. She formed a sliver of ice and used it like a letter opener. Quickly cutting the envelope open, she took out a letter and an obvious storage seal. Placing the seal down on the counter, she started reading out loud.

 _Yo boss,_

"Yep. It's my brother. I knew it!" Naruto half-shouted.

"Who? Which one?"

"Psychosis. He was here in the Leaf for a while," the boy told her. She shrugged before continuing to read.

 _I came here to meet through the link when you called for a meeting. After we were done with the damn word-slinging and boring details, I decided to get a bite to eat. Your damned furniture that was supposed to have food wasn't fulfilling its purpose so when I was out buying up a whole mess of things to carry out to you, I shopped for some things for you to eat when you came back home. I don't think any of us would appreciate it if you starved yourself to death. The list of the contents are on the other side of this note._

 _Narburei_

Here she visibly paused, giving off the vibe off the vibe of a double-take, turned to Naruto, clarity was now reigning supreme in her facial features. "Well, I learnt some things, and now I'm confused about others."

Naruto felt a bead of sweat trickle down the side of his face. "Like what?"

"Nothing makes sense, except for the fact that your so-called brother has the first syllable for a name like you, and 'burei' means 'rude'. Wasn't he supposed to be the one who specialized in torture?"

"Hai." Naruto admitted. "Can we not go into this right now?"

"Of course, master." She picked up the seal, and tried to unseal something from it.

…

…

…

"Well, he did write down what was in it. But he bought that much? I only cooked two pounds of the rice, and the list says that there's fifty. Then there's the fact that the list indicates a variety of food in the seal. Normally, storage seals are far more limited. This is very high quality paper and ink."

"Hai." Naruto mumbled.

"One of your brothers from Wave claimed that you all had more money than you knew what to do with. I never pegged that to be true. Now, I have no doubts. Furthermore, this was said **before** you and your brothers killed Gato and divvied his money."

"You doubted it? Why would you? I don't lie. We don't lie." The blond protested. 'Double-speak, at the most.'

"Who can say for certain?" Haku answered, with the equivalence of a shrug. "I barely put a dent in the food that's reportedly in the seal. Two pounds of rice, a pound of sliced fish and a bit of green seasoning."

Naruto burped with his mouth closed and exhaled; good table manners were not lost on him. "And it was divine. Arigato."

She nodded. "Douitashimashite. Now, about sleeping arrangements?"

…

…

…

It was fully expected.

Naruto felt like he wanted to face-palm himself with a rock. "Two sets of clothes, huh?"

"...Hai." Her unsure response hinted that she was slightly embarrassed.

"So after each of us had a bath, I changed into shorts and a t-shirt, and…"

"Hai," was all the girl would say.

"I'm preparing to go to bed…with a mist hunter-nin." The boy said in exasperation. Indeed, the girl before him was back in her battle robes, all ready to get a good night's sleep.

"I only look like one. You of all people should know that looks can be deceiving," Yuki argued. "Besides, I couldn't shower and put back on the kimono I wore all day. I just washed it, and it's hanging on the roof to dry during the night."

"Just this once. Please? Just put it back on."

"Wouldn't that offend you?"

"No. Besides, I'm not sleeping beside you." Naruto said firmly. As he expected, Kurama acted up, but Naruto shut him down, and cut the mental link. In a huff, the beast relinquished his presence to go off to the other particular T13 members who currently thought that training was more important that sleeping.

"I know."

"You do? Good."

"You can have the bed." (x2) They spoke at the same time.

"What?" (x2)

"You are." (x2)

"I insist." "Master, you should have the bed."

His eyebrow ticked violently before he held up his hand. "Alright, let's both be quiet. What just happened is creeping me the hell out."

"Master, you should have the bed." She was staunch and adamant. "It is not my right to impose my own self in comforts that belong to you."

"Oh yeah? Well, I _order_ you to take the bed. Oh…err." He hesitated. "After you borrow a pair of shorts and a nightshirt, I reckon. Please."

She was torn in her decision. That of complete obedience, versus the principle of inferiority. Obedience won in the end, as she realized that he was ordering her with veto to make sure she was comfortable; after all, that was why he was moving out the next day. He had insisted earlier that she were to have her own room. Most likely, it was privacy that was the issue.

"Fine. But you're taking the bed as well."

"What?!"

"It's a double bed. It's enough room for two teenagers."

He scratched his crimson cheek in trepidation, wondering if it was truly alright. "Okay, okay. But lose the outfit! I'm serious about that! Kami, I am **not** going to sleep next to a hunter-nin, I said!" He exclaimed frustration.

She had already retreated to the bathroom to change.

…

…

…

A third party watching would have been cracking up as a girl slept normally on the bed, and Naruto blushing like a maniac whenever clothes rolled up in different and revealed skin. His nightshirt on her was large, yes, but more importantly, so was the collar. When the back of the collar was fully up to the back of her neck, the front was sure to come fully down…

That was one issue.

The second one was that of the baggy shorts rolling up to reveal thighs, and they continued to do so. If the shorts were close-fitting, they wouldn't be doing that. Haku had a bit of a petite frame, and so the clothes nearly fit her like a sleeping bag.

Thankfully, she rolled unto her front, and turned her head to the opposite side. Although that was fortuitous for a pedantic prudish character like him, it didn't stop him from being lulled to sleep by the monotony of Haku's mellow snoring.

He was at the very edge of the bed, clear on the other side; leaving enough space in the middle by which said third party believed that he could fit there to sleep as well. But Naruto's clone figured that he needed to guard the two of them; no telling how the villagers felt about what happened earlier.

The clone's body was wracked with silent chuckles at his original's behavior.

 **=X=X=**

"I was only telling them." Naruto said evenly. "Next time, it's a warning. After that, then I'll make them stop. I spoke clearly."

"I see," the Sandaime replied as all three walked through the village. "But did you really have to beat them up?"

"Hmm. I seem to recall a disastrous event that took place when I became ten," Naruto pontificated sarcastically. He was about to continue when he was cautioned silent by the Hokage.

"I don't like that time any more than you do, Naruto. In fact, I downright abhor it, and many times, I regret not having Anbu guarding you then, rather than after."

"That's a lot of ineptitude, to be frank. I nearly got killed twice; once when I was eight, and the second time when I was ten. I guess every ninja was busy," Naruto commented in abandon, yet in all seriousness. "At least they're impartial, none of them came when I was defending myself with only the palm of my right hand."

Hiruzen exhaled deeply as he stared out in front of him. He was taking the lead with Naruto and Haku just behind him to the sides. He was a rather intimidating character by means of his prowess and his title by office and it was obvious that if anyone smiled at him, and glared at Naruto, it was a likelihood that they'd be having too many problems to deal with; particularly of a Hokage who, at this time, was a bit anxious to make up for his 'lack of assistance' he should have offered to Naruto throughout the years. Naruto was successful at giving dreadful guilt-trips, and Hiruzen knew that he was getting off a tad easily, or at least by his own opinion. But Naruto was driving at a point.

"You used your palm, as you so mentioned. What for a warning?" The elder man asked.

"I'm going to use my fists."

"And to 'make' them stop?"

"I'll break an important joint with my baton, I guess. Like a knee or an elbow."

Hiruzen sighed mentally. That was in fact, not too much of a bad thing. While those were horrible breaks to recieve such a blunt instrument of brute-force, at least Naruto wasn't going to kill them. Whether or not it was justified, a civilian couldn't be killed by a ninja, unless it was by execution by breaking a law that required their lives as punishment. If the case was absolute, then the civilian could be killed without trial. Although this was a military-esque village, the civilians had rights too. And according to reports, Naruto had fought with lower strength than one who wasn't trained in the ninja arts, much less, 'never even closed his fist'. Naruto was hunky-dory, as far as it went. Just like his earlier issue with the destroyed Training Ground 4.

"And if they persist beyond that?"

"I'll break important **joints**."

"Ah, plural." Hiruzen muttered. "Well, here we are. You claimed that you wanted a house, not an apartment. You could just buy it, instead of having to pay rent every month." 'Although if he makes jounin, or turns sixteen, he'd basically have the keys to the practical fortune his parents left behind.'

"I like it." Naruto said unexcitedly. "Good location, it's in a good district, nearby shops, and…apparently, this block is patrolled every now and again. I wonder why I didn't live here in the beginning."

"Could you buy a house like the others here? Shinobi typically rent their homes, as their future is always in jeopardy. You were under rent like everyone else."

"That's fair." In truth, he could argue this point for days, but he didn't feel up to it. He merely stared up at the house, and noted that it was built with a small space between the other neighboring ones, like everyone else. It was only a passage at best on both sides. It wasn't a lateral house, it was a dorsal house. That meant that instead of having a house built with all the rooms extending to the side, all the rooms extended to the back. It was done to save space, and add more houses to a street. And the Hokage did mention that there was a backyard. "How many bedrooms?"

"Three. But you mentioned last night that you were fine with two. Why'd you change your mind this morning?"

"In case of anyone passing by; I'm not liberating Haku of a bed, and I'm not taking the floor." Naruto spoke in a firm voice. He saw the Hokage's vain attempts to try to suppress a smile, and decided to shut the man's thoughts down quickly. "I'm **not** raising a family, alright?! I can virtually hear you think the thought!"

"Me? I said nothing. You said so, not I," the Sandaime replied, his smile growing into a smug grin. "Let's go inside."

…

…

…

A mere fifteen minutes later, the trio had fully toured the inside of the house, and the outside as well. Three bedrooms, two fully furnished bathrooms, a kitchen and a living/sitting room. And the backyard was…enough. Not too much, or small. Just…enough. A yard of grass growing, a fig tree growing close to the fence, and a verandah. **(1)**

"Perfect." Naruto muttered. "Now how much is it?"

"It just doesn't work like that, Naruto." The Sandaime rebuked. "Forms to be signed, deeds, keys and money need to change hands…" He trailed off, letting the boy know that it was easier said than done.

"All right. I'll do the legality wrangling and I'll make some kage bunshin to help us move in. I want all of this done inside the hour." He glanced at the hokage testily. "Please."

…

…

…

It was in fact forty-five minutes later when Naruto paid for the house with cash he himself had withdrawn. A clone of the Hokage who accompanied him to the place of general banking in the village and got him a place at the head of the line, and the brightest forced smile he had ever seen from the Teller at her station. He had withdrawn twice the amount he had needed for the home, mumbling something along the lines of 'needing new furniture.' Around a dozen clones went around buying the furniture, as well as scuttling his apartment for all that he wished to carry with him. In fact, they carried off all of his previous furniture to a homeless shelter, along with money hidden in aspects like cushions and pillows. (Only the 'dirty people' would sit in it, feel the money in cushions and investigate it.) All he really could say he took from his apartment was his best clothing, a few posters he had scavenged to keep for himself to 'beautify' his home back then for sentimentality's sake, the seal for the food he got from his brother, and a palm-sized box that was locked by key.

The clones themselves…went on a shopping spree. Under henges, of course.

Haku accompanied them, and they were all armed with the power of cash and the might of storage seals. It was in fact a bit amusing to watch a girl giving young men shopping suggestions as they roved the commercial business area. They were still new faces, and they had money to spend. None of them got conned for no one saw the clones for who they really were.

"Alright, that's it for the furniture, I suppose. Master, I believe I should move on to the clothing. I still lack clothing by number and you as well, by way of more diversity in your wardrobe."

"…" The young man (clone) glanced her way, and noted that she had returned to her pink kimono. "Ain't that the truth," he replied with a roll of the eyes. He retrieved a small money purse from a hip pocket and handed it to her. Upon opening it, her brown eyes widened as she found a thick wad of bills; all of which consisted of the highest order. She had never held that much in her life.

The clone smirked as he handed her a small slip of paper and two storage seals. "That right there's his clothing size particulars. He wanted me to ask you to shop for clothes, 'cause he once heard that females have good shopping sense."

"I don't have _any_ experience shopping. I never grew up with much, and far be it from me to be trusted with this much money," she muttered with a lack of confidence.

The clone sighed. "You just helped out a lot with the furniture choices. You'll do fine. I'll come with you, while the others go on home to start setting up and the like. Besides, boss doesn't want to wear pink, so I have to monitor the effeminate stuff."

…

…

…

"That's that, Naruto." Hiruzen handed the boy six keys on a key ring, which the boy took gratefully. "I myself engraved with chakra the door name initial to indicate which door each opens. All the doors inside are sliding doors as is the custom in homes, and they are normally under latches and privacy-chains, not keyholes. The only ones with keyholes are the front and back doors; three keys for each. I supposed that you would give the girl a pair as well and keep the last two as reserves or for emergencies you could set aside."

"The girl has a name," Naruto reminded. "But thanks a lot, Saru-jiji. By the way, about last night-"

"I'll look the other way this once. But you are not to be the instigate for the first strike. Nothing extreme; yours is a special case, as no other shinobi had been provoked and antagonized as you have been. But I suppose there could be an exception for you that you are liable to hurt someone if you're riled on repeatedly, as you've said before."

"It's not fair and yet it's…just." Naruto figured. "Not because they can't fight me, but they shouldn't be trying to in the first place."

"Exactly. This won't pass as law, but perhaps you could start a rumor."

"I thought that you didn't compromise yourself with dealings done under the table."

"I'm not." The man said evenly. This made Naruto think as to how that the Hokage wanted Naruto to start a rumor that he could get away with harmful self-defense, only as a bluff. He was in fact hoping that it wouldn't come to brawl or fistfight or worse, but should it happen, the worst Naruto could get is a legal slap on the wrist. Perhaps like some community service by way of a few D ranks, most likely; any of which could be nullified by using clones.

"…I see." The boy then got a memory of his clones dispersing and grinned a bit in self-satisfaction. "Well, do you want to swing by and see how everything looks?" The Uzumaki asked. "The last piece of furniture was just set into place."

"Already?"

"I'm my own helper and I've a helper."

"Hmm?"

"Shadow clones and Haku." He deadpanned.

…

…

…

Haku placed the vase of flowers down unto the center table, and smiled broadly. Finally, this entire house felt like a home.

A home.

Such a term felt alien to her, and she couldn't help but remember a time when she used to be in one, a time before she was caught manipulating water and ice. And then it became a glacial and frosty hell…

She shook her head to get rid of it, or at the very least, suppress it. It was a good day; the day was perfect, in fact. Warm sunshine, partly cloudy, balmy breeze…the type of weather that people usually took for granted until it became terrible.

Her years under Zabuza now consisted as nothing but memories and experiences, and she was grateful. Deep down, under the man that was composed of a killer, was a person she knew cared for her and she was happy that he did. Perhaps that really was the reason why he had trying to sell the idea of her being subservient to Naruto, if for nothing else, the perks of being somewhere safe from hunter nins, for starters. Others like not having to constantly be roving around countries in a perpetual flee ran second, and so on in a listing. It could even be argued that the hunter nins pursued him extra-fiercely because of he was in the company of Kekkei Genkai holder.

But now, she truly felt that her luck was changing for the very best, _very_ quickly. In a single moment of desperation, she had **sold** herself to a person, while who did not want her as an inferior being, treated her with the very best, and it hadn't even been a month in which her servant/slave tenure had begun.

Her new master only 'ordered' her to do what he believed would benefit her by way of comfort and happiness, already demonstrated that he held her in high esteem and concern; the fact that she could get into trouble in the street, or the anbu clash in the office, or when she nearly lost her life to a suiton shark in Wave. He had already demonstrated that he really wanted the best for others, and wondered if she herself was precious to him. Perhaps he could be one to her.

Or he could be an overall self-sacrificial person who only came along once in a lifetime.

And all of this reasoning came from less than a month in which she had first met him. It was funny how life worked out.

She had a roof over her head, food availability for an eternity, her own warm bed (double-bed) and her own closet full of clothes. These were all the necessities more than compensated for, not to mention luxuries like television, perhaps a space for some gardening in the backyard, and the list went on.

When it was all calculated, she was 'given' to Naruto to be taken care of. Nothing was said like that, but the future wasn't dim at all. In fact, at the very opposite of it.

"Haku, we're home!" Naruto called. He turned his key and entered, only to find the girl looking as if she was lost in thought before he first called. Deciding to file that away as unimportant, he gestured to the Sandaime behind him. "I invited him to show him how everything looks. When I got the memories, I thought it was superb. You did a great job with telling the clones where and how to set up and place everything."

"I…thank you." Yuki answered. "You were impressed enough to show it off, I see."

The Hokage smiled to himself. This girl was all right by him. Hell, ever since she came back with him from Nami no Kuni, he had noticed that Naruto had been of a somewhat happier countenance and she had arrived only yesterday. (Of course, there was felloship in Wave.) Provided that it wasn't a brainwashing (Hiruzen chuckled at this) a girl of this nature was perfect. "It's splendid." He cruised around, before coming back.

Naruto cleared his throat. "That doesn't sound like a traditional 'oh, I love what you did with the place'."He spoke, using his fingers to indicate air-quotes. "But yeah, it's great. I should have gone to Wave sooner to get the money to get the house."

The aged man laughed to himself, before he felt a slight tingle. "That's fine. But duty calls, Naruto. And to be frank, it's too loud. Next time, eh?"

"Next time."

And with that, the man left through the door and the near-unnoticeable sound of a body-flicker was heard. They two in the house took it as a sign that the man was gone, and the ice-user made herself audible.

"So…what would you like for lunch, master?"

"I was going to cook something, but I'll make way for the better cook." Naruto supposed. "Please cook your favorite meal, if you feel up to it. I want to know what you like."

Haku turned and walked to the kitchen, her smile un-visible to him. There it was again. Best master…ever.

 **=X=X=**

The room was quiet, save for the three's breathing. A mere instant later, the woman of them had her hand over her daughter's mouth. Once it was assured that the line of the girl's speech was not condemnable, the hand was withdrawn.

"You can't be too careful, Hinata-chan. The walls have ears."

"The hokage told us about the law when we met with him, and allowed us to speak freely to our parents. Were you afraid that we would get into trouble?"

"Indeed, daughter. But it's not that. There are the younger of us Hyuuga could be passing by outside. Like your younger sister."

There was a scampering of feet to get away from the door, and but the man's face didn't change quite so much as Hinata's, who was surprised to know that Hanabi was eavesdropping. "Gomenasai, I did not realize."

"You didn't finish. She only knows that you said that 'Naruto-kun is the container-'; that's where I stopped you." Hitomi assured. "Your head won't roll, but I daresay that my shujin should put up some sealing to suppress the inside vocalism to escape through the walls of this room."

Hiashi formed the dragon handseal for brief moment, before he re-settled. "It is done. Now you may continue, Hinata."

The girl nodded gratefully. "Naruto-kun lost his patience with sensei."

"Again, Hinata-chan? I spoke to her several times about alienating him." Her mother started, a bit upset. "What did she do this time?"

"I can't too recall the details, but Naruto-kun said that the Kyuubi had already apologized to her for killing her father."

Hiashi blinked, but Hitomi looked thoughtful. "Ah, of course. She told me about that, but she was confused about it in the beginning. She finally came to the conclusion that Naruto was lying, or if it really was the beast, that it was that who lied. What happened next?"

The heiress continued on eagerly. "Naruto allowed the Kyuubi to possess him, like."

Both clan leaders had their breaths caught in their throats, but the girl paid it no mind. "He spoke to all of us in turn, and he then apologized to Kurenai for her father, and that she shouldn't oppress Naruto on the basis that he was orphaned, and then lost his adoptive father."

"…Hinata-chan, dare I ask what the Kyuubi was like? Was he threatening?"

"Far from it. While he did speak with some foul language, Naruto's adoptive mother hit him over the head several times while telling him to stop. He soon conceded."

Hiashi couldn't believe this. "The Kyuubi possessed Naruto, and allowed a civilian to cross him?"

"He must have known that he was in the wrong. He even spoke to me." Hinata blushed a bit, but soon negated it by thinking of what happened when she was fighting at the cave entrance.

"What did he say, musume?" Hitomi queried.

"To be straightforward…" She hazarded a gulp. "He told me that if I didn't like Naruto-kun anymore because he was its jinchuriki, he was fine with it. He also said that Naruto is dense, and I would have to 'scream it in his face.'"

Her parents were **not** stupid.

They quickly connected the dots, and realized that if the Kyuubi inside Naruto noticed, then the beast basically knew a lot through Naruto as a proxy. It was certainly not through just regular speech, but could even be through sight and hearing. It was almost as if a fly was always on the wall pertaining to the blond who conversed with him sometimes, but kept some secrets to itself, like info from Naruto about the crush. When that was figured and thought it relatively unimportant, they backtracked to the answer Hinata made that told them that she had admitted to infatuated with him, and didn't even realize it.

"So…" Hiashi let the word hang. "Do you, or do you not?"

She continued thinking of gory fighting details of Wave to keep the blush down. She spoke a self-confident 'hai'. And her parents didn't make much of it after all.

"That boy was a strange character." Hitomi started. "When the soup kitchen was formed, he came around a few times, but stopped ultimately when he realized that the homeless scorned his presence and would rather go hungry by not coming when he was there. He told me himself when I took my turn to ladle food out to them."

"He…was homeless?" Hinata asked with widened eyes.

"No. But he never had much." Hiashi admitted. "Even when the orphanage was started, he looked as if he made a few attempts to join, and the man named Masato who ran it was welcoming. But Masato got mugged repeatedly and openly berated for considering letting the boy stay with them. Needless to say, the boy didn't join, and Masato said that Naruto had declined, as he did not wish for any of them to be treated as he was."

"Naruto-kun…seems more than ready to let himself go without many comforts he deserves as to let others have it instead. He's a rather strange young man." Hitomi admitted. "I've even had food sent out to him, but he sent it back saying that others needed it more than he. Perhaps the replacement for the door you broke down to get to him was the only thing he accepted, and he didn't ask for it. He merely let it stay in its place. I daresay that he would have given it back to us if he had a power-drill to remove the bolts and screws."

"How can someone be that self-sacrificial?" Hinata asked. "There is so much that confuses me. The only thing that is assured of him to me is that he is nothing if not a person of only good intentions, and an unbending will he had demonstrated ever since he fought for me when I was smaller and bullied."

"You told us that he had been helping you with your confidence, as well as teaching you a medical technique. For the confidence alone, I could give him half the clan property in gratitude."

"Was my lack of confidence that detestable, tou-sama?"

"Hai," the man said bluntly. "It was."

"So you have him in good esteem, I take it?"

"I do. I held nothing against him. But should you ever pursue a serious relationship with him, you should know that you would be separating your ties to the clan." The man said in all seriousness, startling the girl in a shock. "I do not say this to frighten you, I merely state the rules. There is no outside binding of ties, as there is only wedding inside the clan to retain our dojutsu."

"To marry inside the clan?"

"Hai. Should you ever wish to marry someone outside, you would be sealed as to not allow your children to retain your bloodline. This is one of the oldest laws we've had, and there has been no exceptions. You may visit to remain on good terms with family, surely, but you would no longer be a Hyuuga, save for nothing but the eyes you have. The seal is not of subjugation, but only to bar inheritance of the dojutsu by your children."

"So it's not because it's Naruto-kun specifically for what he contains?"

"No. It applies to anyone outside of the clan, for anyone of this clan."

The girl was silent for all of two minutes as she stood before them.

"…"

"I don't stand to lose much if I do pursue a relationship with Naruto-kun that leads to marriage." She swooned a bit as she said the last. "Errm…may I be excused?"

"You may, musume. And when next you see Naruto, tell him hello for me." Hitomi called after her leaving daughter. "And do keep your head on your shoulders, dear." As she left, the woman turned to her husband. "Well?"

"I approve. The boy is most likely the best suitor there is," the man said evenly. "I can't think of anyone within the clan suitable for Hinata, and Kami-forbid that she weds someone who only wants to have her as a feather in his hat. Not to mention that he has great strength, even at his present age. I even have my suspicions as to the boy's heritage, and sooner or later when that catches up, they'll be comfortable; they won't live like paupers."

"I know as well. No need to be so vague." His wife reminded. "I have to go. It's my night to help out in the soup kitchen."

Hiashi nodded. It was now a custom, and she was gone three or four nights a week for years since the opening of the charitable service. "Take care."

 **=X=X=**

"And that's all that happened."

His father was silent as they sat next to each other in a lotus fashion. Their hives flew around them, intermingling and breeding to help replenish Shino's hive. It was normal for a phenomenon like this, but the conversation was far from normal, as to the subject being spoken of.

"Shino, this is bizarre."

…

"I know."

...

"You will not attempt to spy on him again, I trust?"

…

"No."

…

"You got off easily."

…

"I should think so, hai."

And each phrase was punctuated with a minute's pause each time, making one wonder if such a conversation could be productive. It was, in all actuality, the most they had ever spoken in any one day. Not that they were estranged, but somehow, the kikaichu told messages and such to the person, far more efficiently than the family members. But sometimes, intimacy by personal speech was necessary between father and son.

…

"And you still would have him off as a good teammate."

…

"He saved my life repeatedly through his so-called brothers. I had suspected them to be clones, but he had had no time to ever make such bunshins when he was on the mission before then. Not to mention that they had their own mentalities, their own personality streaks, abilities and such."

…

"Did they eat and drink?"

…

"Hai."

…

"They metabolize the sustenance?"

…

"Hai. And they did not dispel like his common bunshin for I knew them to receive injuring hits. They could be his adoptive brothers as how he said, and I really am over-thinking things."

…

"It is our burden as Aburame to house our hives inside our bodies. That much is true. But it is little known that it is a burden to be over-thinkers and logic-lovers."

…

"That is true, father. But he said that the Kyuubi called them. Should that be cause for concern?"

…

…

"Apparently, Naruto has, or is part of his own little private organization. They came and did nothing but help, they did?"

…

"Hai. That's all they did. I was even healed by one. 'Doc', he was called."

…

"A shortened version of the word 'Doctor'. How guileless and forthright. In fact, from all you've told me, they advertise who they are by their assumed names and by their crests. Naruto himself has his own."

…

"He has always had that symbol."

…

"The Hokage knows of all of this?"

…

"Hai."

…

"If the Hokage won't consider Naruto a flight risk to flee to these so-called brethren, then I shan't either." The man stood up as the kikaichu were now finished with their 'task' and the insects retreated back to their hosts. "If Naruto, who has always had others' safety, levity and comfort in mind to willingly expose them at risk of compromise and question to himself, then he must care a great deal for the lot of you and others in general. It means that he's not trying to make a case to defect. Perhaps it also had to do with Kimyō Town when he could have left, but still remained to fight for the settlement and repress the opposition from destroying the place and freeing so many others from abominable slavery. Naruto has no wish to leave, and has Konoha's best interest at heart. But if he starts acting in a fashion that indicates otherwise, it would be best to inform someone like the Hokage or myself, although he's the better option. He has years of experience garnered that would guide him to the best possible decision."

…

"Hai, father. So you have Naruto in good esteem, I presume?"

…

"If one young man could do so much for Kimyō Town, and then for Nami no Kuni, I shan't fear for him to be against you, or the village. I'm not telling you to monitor him as a hazard for what he contains, or for his questionable history. He has everyone in a place before himself, and even if he cannot do so in the village, let him do it elsewhere. I say this because he's a young man of the highest moral caliber, and you are fortunate to have him for a teammate. You should listen to advice and instruction from him and look out for him, for I'm convinced that he'd do the same for you as well. People like him are exceedingly rare, nowadays."

Definitely the most the man has ever said in a week, or even a month. And all he had to do was give the affirmative. Instead, he gave his reasons. For a man of little speech like his father, to go that far meant that he was probably giddy that someone like Naruto was on his team. Even in his quiet and stoic way.

…

"I see, father. Arigato for your advice and instruction. Will that be all?"

…

…

"Hai." The man replied after a half-hour. All in all, they had been 'conversing' for an ample four hours.

 **=X=X=**

Kurenai paid no attention to the hoots made to her by the brash males as she walked on past. She was lost in thought as she made a beeline for her usual table; the one her fellow jounin sat at whenever they felt the need to converse, or to just waste time. At the table, she saw Asuma, Gai, Anko and Yugao. The last came as a surprise to her, for she rarely saw her more than twice a month. It wasn't usually around this time, so she must've done something or another to get, or take some time off.

It was Asuma who saw her first and hailed to her with a 'hey Kurenai.' She didn't answer straightaway, but instead plopped herself into an empty seat. It was normally Kakashi's to sit in but he wasn't here. "Goodnight all."

"'Night." Anko said shortly. "Kurenai, you look like someone whose past just caught up to you."

Kurenai shared a look with Yugao, and the anbu woman nodded, before she answered in her place. "It did."

"Really?" Asuma asked, no longer just feigning passing interest. "What happened?"

"Naruto apologized. Again."

"Again?" The man asked. There was only one other instance in which she had ever claimed Naruto had apologized and it was about her father. "About your father?"

"Whoa, whoa." Anko held up both palms to stop everyone. "What am I missing? What happened the first time, huh?"

"When the kid was here months ago, it was Kurenai, me and Kakashi. He was buying some food, and he just ups and says 'sorry' and it was done on behalf of-" Asuma held up a palm of extended fingers, before quickly folding in his thumb to show a sum of nine. "At first Kurenai didn't know how to take it, but after a little bit, she was sure he was lying. She just knew that some element was true, and some other part of it was a lie. The boy's eyes wandered a bit to the left only slightly, but if I know Kurenai here, is that she's a lie detector, almost better than Kakashi."

"What did my eternal rival say?" Gai asked seriously. He knew that when he was speaking pertaining to what could cause his head to roll if he yelled, he was calm and spoke with conviction and calm. It was a little seen side of him, but for now, it was absolute.

"Kakashi said the same. Although he said that it seemed that the apology was genuine, but some element to the supporting reason was false."

"But he apologized again." Yuhi reminded everyone. "This time was the real deal. While in Wave, he allowed it or he to take control for about a minute or two to talk to everyone. After he called me a bitch-"

Anko started to snicker, before it became a belly-thumping laugh that extended to the others as chuckles. The red-eyed woman let it be, because she deserved it. Both the insult, and to be laughed at. "Oh damn, that thing's pretty observant, eh Kurenai?" The snake mistress elbowed her friend in the ribs in her mirth.

"Mm hmm. Yeah." Kurenai agreed offhandedly. "And then he himself apologized-"

"It's a he? When it was fought, no one had seen any genitalia." Gai spoke up.

"Damn good thing, too." Asuma mumbled. "With us so small, it would've been awkward to fight with a giant cock on its underside."

"Or if it was a female," Anko spoke up. "With a big ol' pussy under there-"

"Naruto once told me that it considered itself a male because of its mentality, likes, and things like that. Basically guy stuff, from the gist of it. Since it was like that, it considered itself a 'he', and from the bass that Naruto got when it was speaking, I can't think of it otherwise." Yuhi volunteered, interrupting the lewd line of speech. "But even so, he apologized, what does that make me, huh? I suppose I should just move on. I can't pretend that my father just isn't in existence anymore because of that."

"We've all lost people to death," Yugao spoke firmly. "You should count yourself lucky; you actually got an apology from the killer, even though it didn't just set out to kill your father."

"I suppose you're right. I plan to make my apologies as to how I snubbed him over time."

"He'll accept it." Anko assured. "Not that he's soft, but that boy has a good moral compass. I don't see a trait like that often. Although he was a bit of a stand-offish prude when he once stopped by T and I some months ago."

"Neither have I!" Gai exclaimed, now that the moment of 'Naruto's secret' had passed. "It is truly youthful!"

"Uh huh. Like last night, he beat up a bunch of civvies who tried to get fresh with him and mess with the girl with. And he only used the palm of his right hand. It was frickin' hilarious to watch. They were even throwing all kinds of shit at him, and he allowed them to hit one another." Anko cheered with a guffaw as she poured herself a shot of the stronger bottle of alcohol they had available.

"The palm of his hand?" Asuma asked. "As in _one_ hand?"

"Damn right."

"I believe her." Yugao spoke up. "The boy is far stronger than his age would suggest. While we've know of that from the events of Kimyō Town, yesterday, he stopped my sword from making a killing blow on the girl."

"Your sword?!" Asuma asked in disbelief. "But you're-"

"I know." The woman interjected. "He used the hilt of his tanto, and the whole time leading up to it, took kunai injuries and reflected others to save the girl from death. And it's not typical of Anbu to make mistakes when it comes on to bukijutsu. She's his new servant, or slave. Not too sure which one."

The whole table fell quiet.

"P'shaw!" Anko snorted and broke the silence. "Like I'll believe that. It's not like she's all like 'Naruto-sama' and 'master'!"

She got a deadpan stare from Yugao and Kurenai that told her that she had hit the nail right on the head. "Oh, you've gotta be fuckin' with me!"

Asuma groaned as he lit up a cigarette. "Kurenai, what the hell happened in Nami no Kuni?"

"I guess I'll be here for a while." Kurenai figured out loud. "It all started when this half-drunk client named Tazuna walked in…"

 **(1) [AN: Frankly, I can't be bothered with measurement pertaining to the backyard]**

 **Well, this was an okay chapter. No, it's not filler, but I thought it crucial to have this transition chapter to show everyone settling into a new role (and surrounding as pertaining to Naruto's new house) I felt it would be a good thing to reward Naruto with. He's been having quite an unhealthy streak of bad fortune, so I threw him a bone. It was originally going to be an apartment, but I gave a yard instead of an inch. (Pun intended) And yeah, although the chapter was average length, look at all the scene breaks I had to use to summarize the whole chapter. Too many details would've bogged me down.**

 **Yep. Naruto's a bit too chivalrous for a pervert's taste. Total corruption of innocence…meh, maybe later.**

 **I decided to showcase everyone's reactions and reports and opinions of events circulating Wave. This chapter was tailor made for people who were concerned about story developments (Like the village's behavior, Naruto's precarious standing pertaining to his 'associating to people outside the village' and so on. You guys know yourselves.)**

 **Old man Sarutobi still managed to play the part of a Hokage, and a grandfatherly figure in this chapter. I kept him and everyone in character. Except for maybe curbing Gai's behavior a bit, but I've showed him to be serious when the needs be. The guy's a jounin. He must be able to control himself when he needs to, or he'd never make it past chunin. (Behavior wise: I mean, oh look, the enemy you're sneaking up on. "ATTACK WITH THE POWER OF YOUTH!" That kind of shit.)**

 **Hope you enjoyed it. The next chapter should be up one hour after this one.**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	31. Chapter 31

**Breaking Limits**

 **It's been roughly an hour later, and the story 'continues'. Well, not quite like that, but there are some plot points that have need for extrapolation, and now's the time to do it.**

 **Anyone else getting tired of my…eccentricity at times? Yes? You would prefer me to be…bland? So be it.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

 **31.**

They were all stone-faced as they strode in through the gates as they were permitted entry. The gate-guards, Izumo and Kotetsu, had seen this look before on returning ninjas who had 'failed' their missions, but when asked, they were told that the mission was accomplished.

That confused the hell out of the pair of security members, as none seemed to be in a body bag, maimed, injured, or even scratched. Furthermore, they said that they were fine.

They were fine.

Although he had nearly all of his face masked and concealed, Kakashi gave off a dismal vibe as he ordered Kiba, Sakura and Sasuke to go home while he went to see the Hokage.

Immediately. Not in a couple hours, not after a quick visit to the memorial or a quick peek at his usual erotic literature.

Now.

He was at and in the Hokage's Tower in five minutes, and that was because of the two minute waiting period he endured with the secretary who informed him that the Hokage was out, but set to arrive at any time. She somewhat hinted that she had called him, and he assumed that it must be some sort of the new experimental 'Heat-call' seals he had heard about. It worked like a summoning pager; by focusing chakra into one seal, another seal became warm to tell the person something. Like a warning, or a summons and so on.

"He's now in his office. He's free, Hatake-san," The secretary told him, and he thanked her curtly. He went up the steps calmly and deliberately and opened the door, and heard the man mumbling something about 'Naruto's house', and 'good'. Whatever that was about, he ignored it as he greeted the man.

"Hokage-sama. The escort for Sumiga to his place of business was achieved."

Hiruzen took a moment to regard the man. He was normally…Kakashi. Now, he was acting more like…Hatake, if that made any sense. As of now, he was behaving a bit too formal, and that actually worried him. "I see. What are the details surrounding the escort, seeing that you had to see me so urgently?"

"The details…" Kakashi trailed off.

 **Flashback**

"It's so hot!" Sakura complained. "We should have taken the one to Takigakure, sensei!"

"Quit your griping, pinky," Kiba growled. "You're getting on my nerves!"

Sasuke and Kakashi said nothing, but Sumiga merely grinned, before telling Sakura that she should have expected that it would be of a dry, hot climate. In fact, they were traveling for three days, and he had been warning her constantly that she should have better prepared.

Prepared was a strong word. What he meant was, 'get ready to choose your lesser of two evils'.

Kakashi was fine. He had endured worse.

Kiba decided to retain his jacket and pants. It helped to keep the hot, gritting sand off, and out if his person, if you caught his drift.

Sasuke went as is in his shorts. He was determined to keep cool by having as little clothing as he would dare, so…is as is.

Sakura…she also went as is, because she didn't 'know' there was a choice to make, judging from how everyone was still dressed the same. It was an honest mistake, made by an assumption. But then again, she still couldn't make up her mind if she hated the infernal sand creeping and grating on her flesh in her clothes, or if she hated the hot oven-like temperature.

Or the sand that constantly got in her eyes.

She was like a nagging wife who went off every five minutes about a new complaint, and needless to say, everyone was downright relieved to behold the sandstone infrastructure of Suna so they didn't have to travel anymore. She wasn't necessarily being a fan-girl; her complaints were reasonable. To be fair, she had insisted on Takigakure, for she wanted to see the Waterfall after which their village was named. They were made to go to the direct opposite by their teacher who believed that their first C ranked mission should at the very least **feel** like a mission more than a vacation. And yet currently, Konoha was like a balmy paradise compared to the sandy and slightly destitute hell-hole that was Suna. And it was evening... roasting had been reduced to frying.

Oh the irony. You never quite appreciate what you have until it's gone.

"Sumiga? Where is your place of business?" Kakashi inquired after they made it past the gates of Suna.

The chubby and jolly-vibe filled merchant suddenly frowned deeply. "Gomenasai. Your services are no longer required."

"What?" Kiba asked in a bewildered tone. "But the mission said to-"

"Hai. It does." The man affirmed. "But the thing is, I don't want to look like a traitor, or a sell-out by employing ninja from another Village than my own. I don't want to walk beside you."

"Hmm…But why is that? Nothing's wrong with that. People from our village hire other village ninja too, when they're in that village." Sakura pointed out.

"That may be true, Sakura," Kakashi spoke. "But Suna, in a sense has been on a decline for a number of years, and for him to not support his own village's economy by even hiring Suna shinobi for a two way trip makes him look traitorous, and will earn him nothing but scorn. Not only could Sumiga-san be ostracized, but what business he has will also suffer."

"I'm glad you understand." Sumiga thanked them, and was about to walk away when his shoulder was grabbed by the jounin.

"The mission **entailed** your safe escort to your business. We will and we _must_ follow. If anything, we'll trail you by a dozen meters or so, as I'd rather not have you jumped by a common thief from a dark corner. It's evening and it will soon be night, after all."

"All the more reason to beat it," Kiba jabbed. "Maybe we can reach back to the forest by nightfall, and we'll camp. Nothing wrong with sleeping outside."

"That's because you're a dog." Sakura dissed the Inuzuka. "You like to sleep outside."

"Why, I ought to plug your mouth with a fist-"

"That's enough." Kakashi raised his voice to get their attention. "I'll pay for a room or two for the night. For now, Sumiga-san, we'll follow. I trust that it's not far?"

"No." The man sighed dejectedly. "If the word ever gets out..."

"We'll try to be…discrete," Kakashi said with an eye-smile.

…

…

…

"Kiba? Smell anything suspicious?"

"Yeah. Sakura's funky breath." He said dryly. "But I guess that shouldn't be suspicious after all, 'cause it's common knowledge."

"Your mouth is right under your nose, dog-breath." She muttered.

"Focus, you two." Kakashi chided. "This mission is all about garnering experience in the field. If you insist on insulting each other, I'll see to it that you two never get promoted."

"What about Sasuke?" Kiba growled.

"I haven't heard a thing from him since we left the village. Have you?"

"N-…no." The Inuzuka admitted. He resumed his sensory (sniffing) duty, but couldn't help but notice the lack of people out-of-doors currently. There were next to none. In fact, only team seven trailing the hurrying merchant were traversing the streets the now darkened streets, and the man seemed rather overeager to reach his destination. "Is this some kind of curfew?"

"Someone finally noticed," Kakashi mumbled. "You've got a good head."

"I noticed too, sensei! I just didn't say anything," Sakura defended.

"So you **don't** think that a lack of any activity in the late evening and early night is disconcerting enough to tell your own team?" The man gave off the vibe that he was far from pleased, and Sakura decided to just be quiet, and try to rub away the goose-bumps on her skin. The cold nights in the desert were a complete opposite of the fiery heat of the days, and she was **still** exposed. She was seriously considering getting an outfit change, as well as one for her entire wardrobe for clothing more versatile.

Suddenly, the merchant far up ahead came to a sudden stop, and started backtracking with his hands out in front of him as if to mollify someone. Kakashi feared that the man was being attacked, and in a burst of speed was at the man's side, while his students raced to catch up. Upon their arrival, all five people watched in horrible fascination of a redheaded Suna native with a gourd on his back, who appeared to be of their genin age venting his 'discomfort' in a screaming groan, while sand circled him in a violent maelstrom on its own. The full moon retreated from its cloud cover to lend the spectacle an eerie glow, as well as reveal the sand to be logged with old and new blood all around.

Kakashi had decided that they had seen enough, but wasn't feeling the need for confrontation. Whoever the boy was, he was definitely connected to whatever had just happened, and in the worst case scenario, was just the cause of it, as the bloody sand circled him in all directions. His back was turned to them, so he hadn't seen them yet.

And yet…why did it feel like he was sinking?

He glanced down to find that they were all collectively 'sinking'. Currently, it was at their ankles.

"Everyone, move!" He yelled the order, and as all realized why, they all squirmed their feet and fled a little backwards away from the upset boy. A few seconds later, the sand they were evading opened up like a concentrated sinkhole, as if the sand they were standing on was a weak ceiling for a pitfall trap. 'What is he doing? Is he causing it?'

He felt a tug on his arm by Sumiga, and he looked to the man. "Hai? What is it?"

The portly man trembled like a tremor, and pointed at the boy. "It's the d-demon kid!"

"Demon?" Sakura puzzled, as she panted thinking of their narrow escape. "Why's that?"

"He's got a demon in him!" The ma exclaimed; somehow, his fear had given him the confidence to blurt it out. "And he kills people for no reason! With sand!"

"Sand?" Sasuke spoke for the very first time. He glanced around, and looked as if he wanted to punch something in frustration. "He uses sand…and we're currently in the Village hidden in the Sand, in the middle of the desert. So essentially…"

"I knew we should've gone home early," Kiba muttered as the boy continued yelling while grasping his head as if he was suffering a headache.

Kakashi was about to order them to their basic fighting duties when he felt a hand clasp him by the shoulder. He was badly startled, but did not show it outwardly; he slowly turned his head to look at what seemed to be a Suna shinobi, but he appeared to be a chunin by his flak-jacket standards. While exceptionally durable-looking, it lacked any form of item-carrying capacities that a jounin of the same village would have.

"That will be all, Konoha-shinobi," The man said. "We wouldn't want a political a political accident between Suna and her _allies_."

Kakashi didn't miss the honey-coated jab from the man, but didn't pay it much mind. What bothered him, was that a seeming chunin managed to approach them from behind, on his **right** side where his exposed eye was, and put his hand on his **shoulder** without him being aware until the touch. This man was incredibly skilled to even get the drop on him, and Kakashi was…well, _The_ Kakashi.

"Why is it political?"

"The Kazekage's son. That is who the boy is," the man said. "And his focus rests on me, and I on him. Please leave."

"Don't need to tell me twice," Sakura spoke. "We're practically standing on the guy's weapon."

Said boy turned and saw the lot of them as if for the first time. He didn't pay the traveling group any attention; at least, not as much as the Suna ninja. "You!" He exclaimed in a monotone that still carried not-so-subtle hints that he was angry. "Mother will have your blood! Hara, you will die to prove my existence!"

Sand rose as he said this, and Kakashi bade them all to get away from the offending sand. He quickly created a kage bunshin, and the clone yanked up Sakura and Kiba to jump with them up to a nearby roof. He himself pulled up Sasuke and Sumiga, and both continued watching as the calm Suna shinobi still stood at ease, despite Sumiga shouting to the man to run away. Kakashi's clone then dispelled.

"Me? Run?" The man said. "I shall not."

The sand all gathered to one side adjacent the irate redhead, and gave the impression of a towering wave of sand. Which was then used to pummel the shinobi as it crashed down with all of its force plus that of its preexisting weight.

"No!" Sumiga yelled. "Gaara, you damn demon bastard!"

The boy with the gourd paid no one any mind as he looked all around him. "Hara! Where are you?!"

"The power of the Swift!" The shinobi said from his new location.

That is, standing next to the boy. That lasted for a second while he spoke, as he flickered out of existence again. "Fear the combined speed of those who used the release!" He came in and exited the sight of reality all around Gaara as he buffeted him all over, particularly the head. The grim individual soon resembled a hammered piece of meat as he was bloodied. There were kunai cuts as well, evidenced by the boy's clothing getting increasingly alarming in the number of strips made and gouges made underneath.

Sumiga was shocked to see this, as he observed that the sand usually protected him from everything. They could all see this as the sand seemed to be trying its utmost to protect him, but moved too slow.

"Swift release?" Kakashi wondered. 'Is that why I didn't sense his approach? Because he came upon me too fast for me to sense him?"

"Swift release?" Kiba asked.

"Swift. Fast?" Sakura said the last as if it were obvious. "Isn't it obvious?"

"Shouldn't we leave?" Sumiga fretted. "The demon might focus on us if we're not careful."

"You mean how you keep on insulting him?" Kiba said sarcastically.

"He is!" The man hissed. "He's got Shukaku the one-tailed demon in him!"

"He's a jinchuriki? Well…shit," Kakashi said to all. "He's right. We should leave."

"A jinchu-" Sasuke was about to ask, but was interrupted by a new development. "What's that Hara guy up to now?"

They all turned their gazes to him as the man voiced his latest statement. "Now, we will see, Gaara. We shall see if it's now your bloodline limit, and not just inherent to your inner demon!"

"It's the curse of my mother!" Gaara yelled at the top of his lungs. He looked as if he was frightened at was to come next, as he now begun backpedaling; he looked as if he badly wanted to run. Sumiga was baffled at this, and told the others that the kid only lived to kill people who so much as looked at him.

Hara clasped his hands in a snake handseal, and mumbled something unintelligible. He soon reopened his hands to reveal pebble-sized orb of shimmering red. Gaara's eyes widened and he tried to limp away from the man when he saw the red aspect. However, whatever the orb's function was achieved as it suddenly grew in size like an explosion of red light that washed over everyone. It made them all flinch at the suddenness, but no discomfort was felt.

Except for Gaara, that is, as when it had dissipated, it revealed the redhead writhing on the ground and screaming in his throes of agony. It took the watching group by surprise, but it intrigued the Hatake. Was it meant only to hurt the jinchuriki?

And then Hara spoke again.

"You're still worthless, Gaara. You haven't manifested it as a bloodline yet. Or rather, not enough. I'll be back to take it from you when it does." He approached the thrashing boy on the ground and spat on him. He kicked him hard in his ribs, but the sand did not even 'try' to stop it. it was just Gaara, alone and vulnerable.

"Hey!" Sakura yelled. "Leave him alone!" She was quickly hushed by Kakashi, but the damage was already done, as Hara turned to face them. He walked slowly towards them, and as he did, each step made him into someone new; with each second, his features increasingly changed as his Suna uniform just…blurred to become what looked like a trench coat, and his face and head hooded. Kakashi himself was wondering if it was a genjutsu, but he had sensed nothing of the sort on the man, and this person could look nothing like the 'original' person he was before.

That was on the backburner. What was foremost, was concern that the man was about to aggravate them.

But that was quelled as the man stopped short, and stood in the streets below. However, he became alarmed again as the man seemingly droned in a condescending monotone, as he spoke in a very steep pontificating voice.

"Girl, you should be quiet, as you are also worthless."

She bit her tongue, in a state of nervousness that the man could deal with a supposed powerful and bloodthirsty person so brutally.

"Both you and your apparent client are both civilians, and you yourself have no business being a ninja."

"I-I-I-I…" Sumiga stuttered. "I didn't hire them!"

"I am not of Suna. You have no need to worry of derision from your fellows ridicule. As for the Inuzuka-"

"How do you know that?!" Kiba yelled.

"Clan markings. And my… _ability_ ," the man sounded as if he was smirking. "Of Discernment. I know all of you now. Uchiha and Hatake."

"That could have been obvious." Sasuke said dryly. "Sensei's supposed to be famous, and I'm an Uchiha. I'm the last of my line."

"No you're not. Itachi Uchiha is the last, as you are also in a state of worthlessness, as are the civilians of your clan."

"Why you-" Sasuke fumed as he leapt down off the roof to face the man before Kakashi could stop him. Wordlessly, the strange man formed a clone that instantly appeared before the group upstairs in a burst of speed.

"Interfere," the clone intoned. "And he dies."

The others were scared into submission, but the Hatake wasn't. However, before he even had a kunai out in his attempt to, he felt what seemed like several fists and feet connecting all over his body at once before struck down through the roof and into the building below, disturbing the shop's contents.

"Gahh!"

The clone muttered something about being able to see in the darkness in the shop, and leapt down after him into the dead-black of the interior. As time progressed, all could worriedly hear Kakashi's groans and heavy blows landing, before he was knocked straight through the door at the side into the open again, a beaten mess. His hitai ate was wrenched off, and one could see a red eye in the space he had always hidden.

He struggled to stand but the clone reappeared next to him in a show of speed. As he stood again, the man full on piston-punched the man in the jaw and knocked him clean through the air and back first through a doorway across the street.

And then he was left alone.

The clone sighed in disappointment before it dispelled in a poof of smoke, and all refocused on Sasuke still trying to stare down the man, even after his teacher's thorough beat-down.

"You are worthless," the man said again, making the boy grit his teeth. "Itachi has completely advanced, and you are nothing compared to he. From my Discernment, you haven't even activated your sharingan yet, while Itachi has fully manifested his."

"Shut UP!" The onyx eyed youth yelled in his growing fury. He went through handseals as quickly and as best he could, before announcing his technique.

" **Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu**!"

He blew a streaming fire at the man, but ten seconds later when he stopped to gasp for breath, he felt a hand on his shoulder from behind. He froze in a startle as the feeling was known.

"Don't you think it's a waste of chakra to put in such an effort only to fail? Although the effort was pitiful, in the very least." The man walked from behind him and calmly to the shop where Kakashi was; after three seconds, Kakashi was hurled out to Sasuke, where he came to a roll at his feet.

"Itachi wastes nothing, his movements controlled and precise. You… you're no better than the civilians at your compound your brother saved alive."

The memories of the civilians calling out to him made him fume; he was to be better than them! "I'll kill you!"

"No! Sasuke-kun!" "Don't!" Sakura and Kiba shouted from the rooftop. They called too late, or it was too ineffectual, as he dashed at the man with a kunai out to liberate the man's tongue from his mouth. It had said too much. Far too much.

The man gave off the vibe that he was smirking and yet disappointed as he watched the boy run at him to try and kill him. Halfway towards him and without warning, Sasuke came to a full stop as his face flattened in his mid-step, although nothing had seemingly stopped him and the man looked as if he hadn't even moved an inch from his place. The Uchiha suddenly grunted-squeal as he squirmed about his nose.

"Gomen. I'll try to beat you senseless more gentler and slower." The man said condescendingly as he started walking to the boy.

…

…

…

Although he soon developed his sharingan from the desperation of his situation, he had still gotten beaten unconscious and subsequently, had to be admitted into Suna's hospital alongside his teacher where they whiled out the month in recuperation under constant care to get them released as quickly as possible.

 **=X=X=**

"This is most…troubling." The Hokage muttered is indeed powerful. "Did he have a forehead protector?"

"None that I could see, Hokage-sama. He even went further to say that he was not of Suna. It was only because of this claim why we were tended to in the hospital, I believe. Suna could have been buying our silence with medical help so we don't make a fuss of how an enemy ninja made it inside their village and attack Gaara several times over time, as well as go versus us."

"Not of Suna? No hitai ate?" The Sandaime puzzled over that info. 'Is it Seigen?' "What did he wear?"

"It looked like a trench coat, like Ibiki's. He also wore full length pants, gloves like mine. He even had a hood and a mask. Everything was all black." The Hatake described.

'Now that I think about it, if Naruto wore this coat, he'd look like this person. A miniature version, at least. But that is the exact description of Seigen, or whoever he is.' The aged man thought. "Anything else?"

"He definitely had swift release or even in multiple, and from what was said and done, I-"

"Swift release?" This was getting interesting. 'Perhaps that was how he defeated the Kumo kidnapper.' "Please continue."

He nodded and began again. "From what was said and done, I believe he somehow determines who has Kekkei genkai, and is able steal them by some means."

"What? How can he-"

"He said so himself. He called himself 'The Bloodline Thief' right before he left. And apparently, the jinchuriki Gaara would manifest his ability over sand later as a bloodline, and he was trying to take it from him, but he wasn't 'ripe' enough, so to speak. Like an unready piece of fruit, when it was yet to be fully developed."

The man became baffled. "'The Bloodline Thief'?! That's preposterous!' But he left you and Sasuke alone, thankfully, although you both have the sharingan. Someone like him would have favored it, surely."

"He said that my eye was a 'knock-off' and my Hatake chakra was inferior to others he had seen." The silver-haired man answered. "And Sasuke's sharingan was 'substandard'. I believe he would rather target Itachi's instead. Anyway, I did some digging, and I found out that Hara, the self-same Suna chunin had the ability to see in total darkness. While I was in the darkness of the shop, fumbling with my senses, he fought me well. He looked like Hara before he changed, so I suspect he can impersonate anyone as well, if he has the means to steal their abilities. Perhaps he even stole the swift release from someone, and he's collecting Kekkei Genkai to make himself stronger."

"I…" The Hokage felt increasingly old. "This is honestly the biggest pile of shit I've ever had on my plate. He's already insanely powerful, and he's collecting the releases?"

"It's what I believe, Hokage-sama. But you speak of this not in just disbelief," Kakashi observed. "But as if you don't expect this from this person in particular."

"I do know him," Hiruzen stated in a form of admittance. "He has met me and Hiashi three times total in the past. Or at least, I _think_ it is him."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow as if to say he would like to know more. The Sarutobi obliged him.

"He was the one to save Hinata from the Kumo kidnappers. I'm sure you heard rumors of someone strange intervened in her favor. He called himself 'Seigen'."

"It's been told among the Anbu how a man disabled some of their number quiet easily, hai." Kakashi answered. "But why-"

The Sandaime held up his hand to stop the man from speaking. "Let me finish. After he did so, he claimed to not be affiliated with any village, and on his second visit, he asked for two favors in return. They were actually desirable and charitable, as you may know them as the newest orphanage and the soup kitchen. On his third visit which wasn't that very long ago, he insisted that we make some more…improvements. Like putting down bedrolls for homeless people who frequented the soup kitchen. We essentially promised to try, and he 'rewarded' us for the last effort with his services. One apparent summoning seal each; one for Hiashi and one for me. I still have mine."

"…Frankly, you should get rid of it. What if that's how he infiltrates villages?"

"I don't think so, although that's a good point." Hiruzen answered. "If he can impersonate people, he could walk into the village, or for Kami-sakes, **run** past the guards, and they would think it's the wind. This is why I consider the Swift release to be so troublesome, but his seems to be the most developed as I've ever seen or known of."

"…You're right. This **is** a big pile of shit. But why would he be so charitable here, and yet volatile in Suna?"

"…Is it even the same person? They sound the same, look the same, but the ideals and morals are vastly apart in comparisons." Hiruzen said tiredly. 'And what if this person is connected to Naruto? They seem so uniform.' "Did he have 'T13' writing anywhere on his person? Any sort of crests?"

"Blank."

'Should I assume the worst? Or give Naruto the benefit of the doubt to know he's not associated? If I don't, then Ibiki himself by extension of clothing would have to be suspect as well.' "We'll respect Suna's wishes to keep this off the books, as they did use their most advanced of medical care in a month, no less, as well as try to cover up their leak in security."

"C rank?" Kakashi asked.

"C ranked. But you will receive A ranked pay none-the-less. Impress on your genin that it's to make sure they keep their mouths shut." He ordered.

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

…

…

…

Kakashi decided to just go home and think to himself. This 'Seigen' character sounded awfully shady, and he refused to believe that the man was mostly good intentions. Hell, maybe he needed to pay a visit to the orphanage and soup kitchen.

He stopped at the orphanage first.

He visited the fairly large building, and it appeared to be recently renovated. He paid that fact little mind, as the Hokage must've really come through on his supposed promise to 'improve' on that. He knocked on the front door, and didn't wait long before it was opened.

"Hmm? Tenten?" He looked down to see Gai's student. "You're an orphan?"

"Didn't know?" The girl muttered. "Are you here to adopt me?"

"No, sorry." He didn't try to pull one of his trademark eye-smiles, but kept his serious and cool demeanor. "I need to speak to the owner of the orphanage."

The bun haired girl shrugged her shoulders before yelling off into the house. "Masato-san!"

"What is it, Tenten?" A faint voice answered, presumably from the backyard, if there was one.

"What's your name again?" Tenten asked.

"Just say Hatake."

"Someone named Hatake's here to see you!" She bellowed her reply.

"Send him in!" The faint voice answered.

"Come in," she invited.

He spent a total of two hours going over the place methodically to find anything suspicious, or even anything that didn't belong. The only thing that seemed unusual, was the fact that the orphanage owner, Masato, gave off a rather pleasant vibe. As in the issue of too much. He supposed that it was a good thing for the owner to be affectionate to all the orphans under his care, so perhaps he worried over nothing.

He soon left with some apologies and thanks for their time, and made for the soup kitchen. There, he saw nothing unusual, except for the fact that Hitomi Hyuuga, the clan head's wife herself, was serving out food to the destitute and the dregs of society. He didn't dare make a scene, so he soon left. He also felt a bit of paranoia there, but he shook off the feeling that the stares of some of the less fortunate were just making him feel self-conscious, and somewhat guilty for appearing callous and uncaring as he only came and watched.

The man walked through the streets, unable to find proper peace as he headed towards the field with the memorials set up. Perhaps if he spoke to his teammates at the memorial stone, the answer, and more importantly, a bit of soul-searching would be accomplished. If he was just going through the motions at this time, coasting on his father's errors and his personal notoriety and only to be beaten so soundly and easily, what was _his_ purpose for living?

He'd better find out, and get back to training. It had been too long.

 **=X=X= (References to past information of 'That Man' = Chapters 4, 7 and 12)**

"So, how long has it been, hmm?"

"Only three days." Hinata answered.

Naruto stretched out to his full length while standing on his toes. "Not long enough." He mumbled through a yawn. "I've been kinda busy ever since we came back from Wave."

"How so?"

"You know, killing a rich guy, took his money, bought a house, moved in-"

"You bought a house?" Shino asked with a raised eyebrow over his shades.

"I'm happy for you. Your previous place was a-"

"Dump? I know, Hinata-chan." The Uzumaki finished. "I'm sure you noticed. Maybe you both could swing by to see how it looks."

"I didn't want to say anything, lest I offend." She mumbled.

"Ah yes. The old proverb 'if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all'. However, there's another that says to 'tell the truth, no matter how ugly it is'."

"Isn't that the truth." Shino agreed in a monotone.

Naruto's jaw dropped, and Hinata's did as well; although to be fair, hers was more dignified, as Naruto looked ready to catch flies. "Shino the Aburame made a joke?!"

"I suppose it's difficult with my level tone." The insect-user began. "But many of them of the ones I unintentionally did in Wave came out rather flat."

The Uzumaki pointed at him with a shaking index and spoke in a palpitating voice. "H-he d-did it again!" Before he could go any further, Kurenai came on scene by running, and slowed to a stop.

"Alright. The Hokage has our signed reports. Time to get back to training for the lot of you. But before that…Naruto?"

"Yeah?" The blond raised an eyebrow, wondering if he was in trouble.

"Sorry for acting like a bitch," she said bluntly.

"O…kay," he answered unsurely. "Apology…accepted, I guess?"

The woman nodded. "And Hinata, gomen."

"Why?"

"For going easy on you in training." She said as if it were obvious. "Now the three of you, prepare to train."

"Um…sensei?" Naruto spoke up. "Do you really want me to-"

"You know what? Not you. In fact, I don't ever want to train with you. Especially not after I've seen you to be capable of in Wave," The woman said firmly. "Massive flame techniques, clone daibakuhas, killing anbu hunter nins, torturing people by removing their guts…hell no. Not to mention the first time, you blew up a whole training ground. I don't want to know what you're capable of if you go all out, after months of progressive growth."

Naruto sweat-dropped heavily at this. "Then…what? Am I promoted or something? I can't train under my sensei anymore because she's afraid to be a 'teacher' to me?"

"I'm still at the place where I heard you tortured someone by removing their guts." Hinata muttered. "I never heard of the details concerning Gato's death."

"It was in his written report, Hinata. Didn't you read it before you signed it?"

"I trusted him to tell the truth, so I just signed it," she replied with a shrug. "Wasn't it?"

"Hai. It was." Naruto spoke. "But next time, read it, huh?"

Kurenai actually had a silent shiver to herself when she heard that. 'Next time?' "Anyway, I have the perfect solution. Your servant that's been in that tree who's been quiet all this time can fight you. I don't think you'd want to kill her, nor she you. It'll help to teach you restraint." She suggested as she pointed into the nearby tree where Haku was eating an orange Shino had given her. (Probably as another hidden joke, they all thought.)

Naruto glanced up to her and waved. "What d'ya think?"

"You did say you were stronger than me." She let herself fall out gracefully, before she landed neatly on the balls of her feet. "I thought this would happen, and it just so happens that I've received my license to be a ninja yesterday."

"Really? What rank?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"I don't have one," she deadpanned. "I wasn't ready to apply for the full-time service, but Hokage-sama gave the license to be one as a reserve. Like a fighting asset in times of conflict, or for when a team is undermanned."

"Well…do you still get to train and spar?"

"Hai." She smiled at this. "And you did say that you were stronger," she repeated as the smile turned into a smirk. "I suppose now would be an excellent time to test it."

"You gonna use ice?" He asked with a wry look.

"Of course."

"Then," he put on a pair of shades from his pocket and put it on in a flashy sort of way. "Don't hold back. Although I do find it odd that you predicted this event and wore that battle outfit on the same day. Odd, indeed."

…

…

…

"Well, we can watch first, and then we train." Kurenai decided. "But if he starts using exploding clones, I want the two of you to back up out of the way. _Far_ out of the way. Got it?"

"Hai, Kurenai-sensei." Shino and Hinata answered at the same time.

"Good." They were a healthy thirty yards from the fighters, and the red-eyed woman yelled at them to start.

Haku had just been heavily thinking about her master's so-called 'Reflex' ability, and decided that she would need to be exceptionally fast to beat it, or to launch a staggering multiple offense. To do that would require her personal secret jutsu of the ice mirror dome, and then turn him into a pincushion. Only enough for him to forfeit or be (hopefully) knocked out, and bragging rights would be hers. Not that she would brag, of course. And she wasn't about to make it easy for him.

"Hajime!"

One dozen yards away from each other was closed in less than a second as both rushed at each other. Just before they clashed, she had three senbon in her hand ready to fight with at close quarters, but he only used a regular kunai. She briefly pondered whether she should be thankful or disappointed that he was forgoing his baton and tanto to use against her.

An unsteadying lurch from her end gave the impression that her guard was open, but he didn't fall for it as they reached each other. He threw the knife at her ankles, and she had to lift her right leg to avoid it.

Big mistake.

He then swiped her left foot from under her as he grabbed both of her hands, and managed to catch her senbon-bearing hand by the fist _through_ the spaces they offered. As she was about to fall, he wrenched her arms to the side so she would topple. But he obviously didn't fully commit to the action as she regained her footing quickly, and glared at him.

"Stop coddling me."

He smirked, and for a brief second, she could see what looked like a silver glow suddenly come into being before it faded. "Alright. You asked for it." He retrieved his baton from his back holster and swiped it down to release the catch inside.

'What do his eyes do?'

"Wow. This many ways on how to not kill you but still beat you up badly?" He mumbled under his breath. Taking what he said as an affront, she threw the three senbon at his chest, the last two in the shadow of each other. It was so well done that from his perspective, it looked like one. However, with his new ability that the latest arrow that pointed north-east had called 'Insight', he saw them all.

He grunted as he strafed out of the way and prepared himself for her to come charging in with a foot long spike piece of ice that was hardened with a lacing of chakra through it. She feinted with it to his stomach before savagely redirecting it up to push it all the way through his chest. He batted it to the side with his baton before he had to raise his hand to intercept a second one she formed in her left hand in a reverse grip to bring it down on him.

He cupped his hands to allow it to pass through it, before he gripped it halfway to stop it. He felt his 'Reflex' ability go off, and he pushed her off and released the weapon, just before spikes of ice erupted from it to skewer his palm.

He quickly removed his tanto and held it in his left hand. While he did so, she was seriously wondering how deep-seated his 'Reflex' ability was; it was the first time she had ever tried to do such a thing, so how did he know that she was going to do that? 'It's certainly useful, that, I cannot lie of.'

She rushed at him again with both spikes now in forward grips before going on the full on offensive. It was dangerous to fit with these, so she quickly formed hilts over where her hands held them, lest his own weapons slide down them and hurt her. It would be easy to; almost everyone had heard the adage 'as slippery as ice'. It was a good thing she did, as his tanto slid down her spike to be stopped by her hilt. That's when she realized that her ice would be useful against blades, as it could be parried with, before throwing it off.

He must've realized this, and decided to quickly swing his around in a reverse grip for slam-stabbing instead of thrusting or slashing, while using his baton for his ongoing offensive. Mainly that of nearly outright clubbing her to death, if she wasn't on purely defensive. Haku mentally cursed. He never seemed to miss battle details, and was able to think of ideas on the fly.

One of his many talents.

"Getting tired?" She voiced.

"Nope. Wait…we're doing something?"

She groaned at the lame attempt for a taunt before she quickly parried a jab from the tanto and taking a risk, used her other spike to attack that same arm, leaving her guard nearly full open to the baton. She was in fact hoping that he wouldn't take advantage of that, but in a split second, he grunted with what seemed like a large expenditure of effort. His baton became a bit radiant with his chakra, before his hand blurred and he slammed her ice spikes into shards from both hands, so much so that they flew out of her grasp to a rather lengthy distance. In fact, one nearly took out Kurenai's eye, if she hadn't dodged it.

"Hey! Watch it!"

Naruto chuckled at this. "What now?"

The disarmed ice-user leapt back by a distance of ten yards before going through handseals in an abandon of close-ranged fighting. " **Hyoton: Chimei-teki sutoraiki**!" (Ice release: Mortal strikes)

All of her fingertips became nearly instantly housed in three-inch spikes which she threw off all at once as if she was flicking them off. The ice spikes were exceedingly fast, and he had to start strafe running as she began spamming them.

He suddenly became painfully aware that he was basically surrounded by ice spikes all around, but felt reluctant to try and hurt her by using fire to melt it all. As he ran, he dodged her ice thrown, as well as ice littering the ground before finally placing his weapons back in the holster and scabbard to which they belong. He grinned as an idea came to him, before running away.

Straight to the river.

She was about to chase him down to get to a site of a definite advantage, but she hesitated as she recalled what he said in Wave:

"… _Because my body is aware of all danger and reacts as such. Because I cannot miss. Because I have millions of battle ideas going through my mind every second…"_

Haku decided to chance it. To use the water from the river to aid her jutsus would be a strong plus, help her to conserve on chakra, and-

'Did he just jump into the river?'

Indeed, he just did.

Well, he just committed tactical suicide by her standards.

He hadn't reemerged and she cautiously approached it. She didn't dare venture to the very edge, but she didn't have to as he climbed back out on the next side and grin cheekily at her in a taunt. She ignored the diss before she glanced into the river from where she was. There was no telling what he had done in there, and in the (worst) case scenario, he had just taken a piss just because he couldn't wait by holding it.

Her eyes narrowed as he merely stood there in an akimbo fashion. "You're toying with me, and you're yet to use any offensive jutsus."

He frowned. "Well…I-"

"Naruto-sama?" She chastised via the question, as how maternal figures tended to do.

"Fine. Can you heal your injuries when I'm done?"

"What?"

"Exactly." He quickly created two three bunshin, one of which sank into the earth next to him via a **Chika hira** , one of whom dashed towards across the river at her, and the last (along with Naruto) who went through a brief phase of handseals ending on dog.

Suddenly, a curved earthen wall rose up a bit downstream and diverted the water towards her. It was a redirection in flow, but why would he actually give her the practical fuel for her techniques?

" **Futon: Daitoppa**!" They both muttered, before blowing a gale force that made a dramatic increase over time. The rapidly approaching clone was stopped in his tracks was stopped in his tracks before glowing orange and exploding in a fiery **Great Clone Explosion** , just as river water began flowing over her immediate area. As the explosion was in a close enough proximity to harm her, just before the force and heat caught up to her, Haku formed an especially thick ice mirror and huddled behind it and watched breathlessly as the explosion passed around her.

'That can't be it. He's planning some-' "Wah!"

The water began heating up, but Naruto wasn't done as he created six more Katon clones who began streamlining fireball techniques to practically turn the water into steam. She wasn't about to risk getting cooked, so she retreated into the mirror she had hidden behind, now augmented heavily with chakra. It was a bit difficult, seeing as how it was practically standing on top of a metaphorical cooking area. Without any preamble, she formed another ice mirror on top of that, and then across, traveling practically like light between her creations. None too soon, she had senbon effectively used against all of Naruto's clones and he himself, but he actually dodged it.

The earthen wall downstream broke apart, and the river resumed its intended course, leaving it's boiling byway of itself to scald the area before it receded below the earth.

"Well…that actually looks pretty cool," Naruto observed as she was standing in her mirror that was above him to the front. "You look like you're in a drawing. Or a sketch. You know, two dimensional. How did you get so flat?"

She ignored it before she began pulling on a lot of her chakra to form ice mirror behind him to take him be surprise, (failed) but her secondary plan was achieved as he was driven closer behind her and to the river by extension. Without further ado, she went through handseals unique only to her and announced her next technique.

" **Haku no Hijutsu: Makyō Hyōshō**!" (Haku's Secret Jutsu: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals) Water rose up dramatically from the river in all directions, and formed more of the same ice mirrors he had seen before, but more was the key change, as he now found himself inside a dome of them.

She raised her hand, now holding three senbon, fully expecting to see him cowering. He wasn't, but decided that a little monologue was in order. "There is no escape from this, my most powerful technique. There's enough of me to turn you into a veritable pincushion. Even my former master, Zabuza the Demon of the Hidden Mist paid it a healthy amount of respect. _And Fear_."

He momentarily took off his shades and stared at her with his…unique eyes. "I can see that there is only one of you." He then put it back on and grinned. "And obviously, you've never heard about what happened to training ground four!"

Kurenai must have heard what he exclaimed, as she yelled at him. "Naruto! Don't you dare! You can't keep destroying training grounds just because you can get away with it!"

"…" Haku felt a sense of foreboding. "A whole training ground? Destroyed?"

"Mass produced clones with the more potent form of the Kyuubi's chakra. Daibakuha." He answered as if he was stating that the sky was blue.

"...I see. It's for the best if I defeat you sooner rather than later," she decided. She began hurling senbon while roving throughout her mirrors, and at the same time he ran his hand over his chest and took out his tanto. With an incredible amount of deft and dexterity, he deflected all the senbon while dodging those 'Reflex' reacted from. Undeterred, she began throwing more and more, as well as incorporating **Mortal Strikes** to compound the effect.

Useless.

"You've got a lot of finesse Haku," he observed as he dodged the last. "And apparently, a lot of needles. I can't believe you have th-" He stopped himself before he stated where she kept her holsters and packs. It was actually in places that he had no business knowing. Not in anywhere perverted mind you, but he couldn't be bothered explaining later how he knew that it was there. With 'Insight', he could actually see the areas where she kept them glow, and those places were like under her bosom, on her waist, and around her arms under sleeves. 'So that's how she removes some as if it were out of nowhere…'

"Hmm?"

"You have finesse," he said again. "But not a lot of brute force."

"Is that so?" She formed the tiger handseal and began manipulating her dome of mirrors. " **Hyoton: Saishu-tekina** **hosoku**."(Hyoton: Final entrapment **)** She then leapt out of a mirror to the side and he was left inside as the mirrors began changing their shape of rectangles to octagons before melding together as they shrank. In fact, as they compacted together, they became thicker and thicker due to displacement. That happened on both the inside and outside to speed up the process, as well as becoming harder and harder to escape from as time progressed.

He was going to get crushed.

"Well, this just turned from a House of Mirrors to a House of Horrors," he commented dryly with an ongoing sweat-drop. 'Ideas, ideas. Oh, there we go; this idea seems reasonable and it's one of the few that won't plan to make me kill her, although it's going to use up more of my chakra than what's the usual.' " **Doton: Chika Hira no jutsu**!" (Earth: Release: Underground Projection technique)

He sank beneath the earth, and gritted through the pain of the hot-water logged soil from his earlier technique. With haste, he made his way underground to escape the crusher-technique. From Haku's perspective, she had seen him go below ground to escape just before he was crushed from all sides, and released her jutsu. For the most part, it turned into water which she then allowed to flow into the soil where he supposedly was. Then, it was a simple matter to try and freeze it with him underneath.

It was slow, and all she did in all actuality was cool down the temperature. He mentally made a note to ask if she could do air conditioning later, before he quickly rose up a ways from the jutsu clashing. About fifteen yards, and by now, they were around fifty yards from the others who were watching. They came up a bit closer to watch, and that they did as they gazed at Naruto remove his baton from his back holster. Once more, the blunt instrument of stopping-power glowed with his chakra.

…

…

…

"Haku, I am **SO SORRY**!" He exclaimed with a quivering bottom lip. "I…I…I d-didn't mean it! I thought you would b-block it!"

"Did you really need to break my arm?" She said through gritted teeth.

He didn't have to, but when the time came, he bomb-rushed her with two kage bunshin. While she was able to stop the shadow clones, she still hadn't taken the necessary measures to avoid getting the radial bone in her arm broken almost in two with his baton. It was one of the double-bones close to the wrist, and she was…well, about to take some time off from 'serving' him, so to speak.

"Well…" He trailed off. "I expected you to stop it!"

"You expected wrong, master." She said with a sigh. "If I could go back in time, I would create a few Hyoton bunshin to intercept yours."

"What if I had spammed clones? Or if the Kyuubi had _lent_ me his more **potent** chakra? I suppose with along with it, I could do another **Gokakyu** like I did in Wave that you saw, but three times bigger."

She groaned. "Ah well. Master, you're stronger. I need to train more, after this."

"After some healing, that is." He put a hand around her shoulders as they exited the hospital. He did not miss the pink tinting of her cheeks, and briefly wondered if what bug Hinata might've had was contagious. "Let's go home. I'll cook this time to make it up to you."

"I don't need coddling," she said firmly as she turned her head away from him to hide the deepening hue of red.

"I know your favorite now," he said with a smile. "So are you sure?"

"Cook, please."

 **=X=X=**

He wiped off the knife on the body of his now deceased best friend, and returned it to it to the drawer where it was kept. He would mourn later, he reasoned, but the need was too great and it needed to be assuaged.

Money was needed.

He stepped back into the growing pool of blood of the dead, and without any remorse or prior ceremony, started searching the man's pockets. After a while, he found five hundred and eighteen ryo and smiled in his glee. He hadn't held that much in a long time, but he supposed that was his doing…and fault. To stoop so low to kill his best friend for a little cash to finance the bliss of a drug that drove him mental…because it kept him sane.

It must've been the other way 'round, as the drug made him slip into the welcoming arms of pleasure, while sitting in the hellhole that was his current shack. His woman left him when he first developed the addiction, then he lost his job…then he sold his possessions to buy more, instead of feeding himself. Worried friends fed him, but that only made things worse as since he was getting food from them, why would he buy more, when paradise beckoned to him?

And then he sold his house, and got so hyped up on it that he was hospitalized.

Didn't he learn his lesson? No.

Now in a one-room shack, of all things. And all of this degressive plummet took place in one year.

"It's the 'Blessed' opium's fault!" He yelled. "It's the kiss of KAMI!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. "But it's better with my heroin toxins from the SHINIGAMI!"

He had finally gone over the edge. That he realized, as when he stood up, he was looking at the body of the best friend who had always stuck by him and wished well for him. Trying to help him get past the temptation and tribulation, and failed. The price of naivety and looking through rose-tinted glasses? To get stabbed multiple times in the chest, only to have his corpse robbed of his shopping money.

" _ **HYA HYA HYA HYA HYA HYA!"**_

"Wha?!" The addict looked all around sharply, looking around for the sudden noise that took him by surprise, "Wazzat?! Who's there?!" He went back to the drawer leaving a trail of bloody footprints and back again. "Kuso!"

" _ **HYA HYA HYA HYA HYA HYA!"**_ The noise came again.

The blood-curdling sound was as alarming as it was scary. He must've really gone off his rocker. "WHO"S THERE?!" He screamed. It seemed to have reverberated all around him, and unsettled his already frayed nerves.

" _ **Waste! Decimate! Devastate! Annihilate! Raze! HYA HYA HYAAA!"**_ The voice screamed in an unearthly tone, before the unsettling laughter.

The man delayed not another moment to come crashing out of his shack through the cheap wooden door that used a latch and eyelet. The door was rotting due to heavy rainfall, but that didn't stop the shards from tearing into his flesh as he pummeled his way through it. "Gyah!"

He had torn his arms open, but he had held unto the knife as his crazed eyes tried to look everywhere at once. There was a stark silence as all creatures of the night were quiet; no owl hooting, dogs barking, crickets chirping. The moonlight up above showed him nothing.

Nothing.

" _ **HYA HYA HYA HYA HYA HYA!"**_

He bawled in fear from the audible torture. The noise badly rattled him as it sounded as if it were next to him, far away from him, everywhere at once, while at the same time, nowhere. It sounded like a nightmarish cackling, and he fretted for himself. But even more so for his soul. No natural person or creature could make such a noise.

And then the moon slipped behind a large cloud.

He felt the need to run into town, but he had lost his sense of direction as he stumbled around now. By some cruel twist of fate, he had wandered into the forested area that his shack was adjacent to, and walked straight into a tree by mistake.

A big mistake.

He felt steel burn his flesh, and realized that he had unintentionally stabbed his own thigh when he bumped into the tree. He had had the knife gripped in reverse for stabbing anything, and yet he had jabbed himself midstride.

He grunted in an effort to pull it out, and focused on getting through the forested area to head into the haven of the town; even more so to seek some medical attention. He hadn't called to mind that he couldn't just waltz into town with what was a murder weapon as well as something he had stabbed himself with, but supposed they'd just blow it off. He was a real sympathetic case, and a good liar if needs be.

Was it just an illusion, or was the forest getting darker and darker?

He was now bumping into the trees regularly, and now felt the need to run, never mind that his leg hurt him terribly the more he moved. Something was happening-

He felt something clamp down on his knife hand, and he screamed for it and stared down to it. There was nothing there, and that 'nothing' included his hand above his wrist. That was proven when he grabbed it in pain, but felt nothing but a stump.

"GYAAA!" He whimpered as he bled from it in a spurt and he could feel the warm splash of it soak his clothes.

" _ **HYA HYA HYA HYA HYA HYA!"**_ The cackling came from next to him now. He flinched horribly, and all around him, he saw jaundiced looking eyes open. _**"Waste!"**_ The voices seem to yell at the same time, and approached him slowly. He began screaming as he inched away from the ones before him, but had unintentionally backed up in others behind him. He felt a new warm and thick liquid drip down unto his head and neck, and began crying anew in fear as he realized it to be salivation.

"L-l-l-eave me al-alone! What d-do y-y-y-you w-want?!"

" **Decimate WASTE! HYA HYAAA!"** The voices screamed together with a cackle. And that drowned out his screams of anguish and severity of his pain as he felt numerous maws and even more innumerable teeth sink into his flesh and began ripping into him.

 **Monotone: Chapter's done. Naruto's strong, Haku's recuperating with a tiny fluff between them, Kurenai's apologetic, the OC is making a name for himself. Until next time, I suppose.**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	32. Chapter 32

**Breaking Limits**

 **I'm back, and…**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

… **I'm ready to commence the chapter.**

 **32.**

"You cannot be serious…no…I refuse to believe it!"

"You're in denial, Kurenai," Hiruzen tried to mollify. "And frankly, I find it reasonable and practical."

"I as well!" Gai shouted. Asuma also tried to put in his two cents as to the fact that he also agreed, but the red-eyed woman wouldn't hear anything of it.

"You don't understand! It's a curse!"

Asuma soon became a bit confused. "A _curse_?"

"Hai! A **curse**! In fact, I think it's because of Naruto!" The woman fumed. "I refuse to do it!"

"…"

"Why is that?"

"A bloody C rank turns into an A rank twice! Who's to say that a damn B rank won't turn into an S rank?!" She griped. "I'm taking a pass! I refuse to accept this!"

"Kurenai…" The Sandaime was cool and collected. "It has only been recently established among all the nations that all Genin must turn in a record of completing a B rank if they wish to take part in the Chunin exams. I believe that really is for the best, as meager C ranks provide far less than enough experience to take part in the exams. Of course, it can be argued that your team has already done an A rank, but it's only Naruto who has completed **two** of them. As it so stands, all your team has to its name is a single A rank out of the village, and…not even half the amount of D's that Naruto himself has accomplished."

Kurenai sighed. "I'm fine with Naruto, alright?! But the two times we've had two c ranks, his part and take in the mission directive has caused it to elevate to an A rank. First Kimyō Town, and then Wave. Well, everything turned out for the best in Kimyō, thanks in no small part to him, but Wave... He has family there, called in some bizarre team, got a servant or slave or whatever kind of service she's catering-"

"Hold on there…a slave?" Kakashi asked, hearing this for the first time. "And what's this I'm hearing about Wave? He has family there?"

"Believe me…it's not the right fuckin' time, Kakashi," Kurenai mumbled to the one-eyed man. "My head still hurts from it."

"You want a pass, I take it?" Hiruzen asked curtly.

"Yes! Please! I just…don't want the risk!" Kurenai begged. "I admit, we can get along, but I swear to Kami, the kid's giving me a migraine!"

High up in the rafters, a small sound akin to that of chortling was heard, and only Kakashi really paid attention to it. He could only assume that it was Yugao's…the voice certainly matched. "There's so much to Naruto that we don't know. Perhaps I could be caught up to speed if I accompanied Kurenai on another mission that requires a pair of jounin? It would give me a chance to learn more about Naruto from her, while at the same time, train at my own pace." At this Gai started yelling to himself about how his 'eternal rival' was training to 'preserve and increase his power of youth', but everyone chose to ignore it.

"This is disquieting, Kakashi," the elder Sarutobi commented. "Why not speak to Naruto himself?"

"He probably has me in a sort of manner as he had Kurenai not too long ago. Chances that he'd speak to me is close to nil. This is mostly my own fault…"

"Yeah, we all screwed up when it comes to teaching him a clone jutsu way back when," Asuma volunteered decidedly. "Even dad was in the same boat. I'm surprised that he's come to terms the fastest with Kurenai, 'cause what we did all those months ago in the dango shop was half-hearted at best. He's probably wary of us...that's not surprising, given how he was raised, and an orphan to boot."

Gai snapped his fingers when he heard this and thought to himself fervently. 'Finally, a true solution! Why didn't I think of it before! It's perfect! If I could get Naruto to get along with Tenten, I could get her to finally heal. From what I've seen, she has bonded with Masato, and her own past keeps holding her back! To think, another recent mission nearly became disastrous as Tenten froze up yet again when she was trying to create explosive seals…to think, if I were a bit slower, she could have perished in the explosion that would have claimed her life. She keeps reminiscing uncontrollably and it's distracting her to the point of endangering her own health and life. Perhaps if Naruto was to relate about his own life, then it would let her know that she's not the only one to have a horrible past, not to mention give her a friend to bond to with! Given Naruto's morals and personality as I've heard so much about, I'm confident that **he** could be the one to help her to move on!'

If the others could hear his thoughts, they would probably think that a plan of that nature was foolish and pure gibberish, but they didn't have to. Gai practically had smoke coming out of his ears. "Um…Gai?" Asuma asked. "Are you alright?"

"He's thinking again…" Kakashi mumbled. "Last time saw him like that, I woke up to find myself chained to a boulder, and he was telling me to race him when he was chained to another as well."

Kurenai elbowed the scarecrow in chastisement before speaking up again. "Anyway, it's clear that Team 8 has to do a B rank in order to be eligible to compete in the upcoming chunin exams. It's in around six weeks from now. But two things bother me…we've done at **least** an A rank before. Why can't they take part, even if I wished to nominate them to?"

"It's a technicality. Plain and simple," Asuma answered in place of his father. "You could even have S ranks to your name, but if you don't have a B, you're not getting in that door. My own Team 10 is in the same boat, and I'm not sure if I could nominate them for a B rank. I want to nominate them for the exams, but a B rank mission…I have to admit that I'm a bit doubtful."

"That's hypocritical. You want them in the exams, but you think they don't have the mettle to fulfill a B rank mission?" Kakashi intoned. "But you're right. I as well, have the same notion." 'Especially with that man we have no choice but to call 'Seigen'.'

"Team nine is completely peaked!" Gai hollered while holding out a thumbs-up while his teeth glared a most fierce shine. "We have fulfilled our quota, not mention doing all within the springtime of our YOUTH!"

"Damn, I'm going deaf in my left ear. Why the hell did I choose to stand closest to you?" Asuma grumbled before sticking his pinkie finger in his ear to try and assuage the ringing sound there. "Anyway, so it's Teams 7, 8 and 10 who needs to fulfill a B rank."

"I'm not coming," Kurenai said heatedly. "I mean it."

"I as well. I'll accompany Kurenai on our own mission." Kakashi reminded.

"But to place Asuma in charge of nine genin?"

"Make that fourteen genin. Naruto's actually represents five."

At this, Gai saw his chance and leapt at it. "What if I accompanied your teams? I could help Asuma keep the genin in check?" He asked calmly. Finally relieved to hear the man's 'indoor' voice, Sarutobi also approved of the idea.

"That's a splendid idea. Although I find that two jounin with twelve genin on a single B ranked mission will be a bit…"

"Overkill?" Asuma asked.

"Unnecessary?" Kurenai suggested.

"Let me remind you that all of you had been particularly lackadaisical to your teams," the Sandaime struck a chord in reminder. "Kakashi's team has been…" He trailed off. "Asuma's team also." He leveled a bit of a glare at his son and the two males needed no further hint. "And to be frank, I find that Team 8, while is on the right path to becoming an ideal team, has always seemed to have sort of 'drama' when it considers all it has had. It's namely that of whose opinions matter the most, dodging rules, terrible listening skills, poor judgment calls and many more that are too numerous to mention."

"Point taken. So you're saying that Gai's team is a one, my team is a three-quarters of a one, and both Asuma's team and Kakashi's teams are on halves. So instead of having a complete four, instead we have a two-and-three-quarters. Although my team has accomplished the A rank set before it, while Team 10 has accomplished two C ranks and Team 7 has…a tad too many D ranks."

"Along those lines, hai, Kurenai." The Fire Shadow affirmed. "So I approve. The technicalities have no disapproval for joint missions, so I believe it's fine. Furthermore, this is mainly to Team 7's and Team 10's benefit."

"Since when is this a competition, you braggart?" Kakashi asked Kurenai sarcastically. "Besides, who's ordering that my team has to do a B rank right away?" 'If only we had an A rank to our name, but I have to be silent about Suna.'

"You're hitching a ride on the backs of other people," Kurenai said snidely to the Hatake, who had the decency to look a bit repentant. He was 'over it' fairly quickly, though. "Besides, Naruto's no mere genin. Hell, I'm even **hesitant** to train alongside him."

"What kind of teacher is afraid to teach their own student?" Kakashi exploited the exposed crack mercilessly.

"The kind of teacher that barely survived a training ground full of Kyuubi-chakra augmented exploding clones," Yuhi replied matter-of-factly. "I believe that Gai really would be a good teacher to Uzumaki. He can keep up with him."

"Oh…" Maito had forgotten about that. 'Did I really make such a wise choice when it comes to a person who utilizes explosions to 'console and comfort' someone who's sensitive around things explosive?' "I can and I will! My team will accompany yours to…show them how it's done!"

The Hokage sighed deeply. "This has grown from bad to worse, and the complications are even more relative."

"Allow me to explain, Hokage-sama," Kakashi offered. "Basically, all of us want our teams to participate in the chunin exams that are around six weeks from now. Unfortunately, there's a new rule and technicality that demands a B rank in order to qualify. Teams 7, 8 and 10 does not meet the specifications needed, and we're opting for a joint mission in our own reasoning to 'dodge' the rules. Team 9 is also accompanying the mission to have an edge of having experienced genin who will be able to 'teach' the younger generation how to perform. Kurenai and myself, out of fear and other such personal reasons-"

"Fear?"

Kakashi ignored the irate woman's outburst and continued. "Will partake of another mission _out of personal reasons_ , while Asuma and Gai will lead the team of 12 genin on said B rank."

"Hai, I believe that sums it up nicely," Hiruzen said in a mock-congratulatory voice. "Now for you to pick your poison."

"I'd rather Iruka get it for us," Asuma decided. "He hasn't let my team down when it comes to mission distribution."

"Well, I've had no such luck," Kurenai replied. "But he might as well. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not going to go on this mission anyway."

"Fine. But Iruka's on his day off," Hiruzen said. "He took a day off, and I've no inclination to do digging around in the missions log for one to give you. Frankly, I've my own paperwork to deal with. Perhaps you should take today to brief your team on a joint mission that may well be taken tomorrow and that they should prepare. Pack for things necessary and such, not to mention garnering a proper mindset." Finally, the elder man lit up his pipe and sighed in relief after drawing on it for a lengthy period-…good things came in a means of accumulative poisoning.

"Iruka took a day off? I wonder where he is?" Kakashi asked himself.

 **=X=X=**

"Yeah, it's a fantastic house, Naruto. Not to mention, it a house! I still have to rent an apartment. You know, like most people."

"Is that jealousy I detect, Iruka-nii?"

"Just a smidgen," the scar-faced chunin admitted. "I guess this means that I can crash here a night or two if my landlord kicks me out, right?"

"Well…" Naruto trailed off. "I guess that's fine."

"I was only joshing you, Naruto," Iruka laughed a bit at this, having to speak in-between his mirth. "I never forget to pay my rent."

"I don't forget anything," Naruto boasted carelessly.

"Sure you do." Iruka rolled his eyes. "I remember when you had to walk around with a notepad just to remember what day it was. Your memory's pathetic."

"Whatever. That's all in the past-…whoa, whoa, Haku. What are you doing?" Naruto queried, now seeing the girl enter the room with a small tray in her left hand that carried two cups of a steaming beverage in them. The two males sitting in the living room stared at the girl for two utterly varying reasons; in general, one was gawking at the fact that Naruto had neglected to tell him that he had a girl over for company while the other was thrown off due to the fact that he could have sworn that Haku was going to take some time off.

At least in this case, it may have been too much to hope for.

"Chamomile tea, anyone? Master, would you like any?"

If Iruka's eyes were wide before, they were now the size of dinner plates. "Um…"

Naruto paid his adoptive elder brother no mind. What he was focused on, was Haku with her right arm in a plaster-cast complete with a sling that doubled around the back of her neck and shoulder and the fact that he believed that she would actually let up to take some time to herself. He really should have known better. "Haku? I thought-"

"No need to worry, master. I'm ambidextrous."

"You did all of that with your left arm?"

"Indeed."

"Hold up, hold up!" Iruka boggled with a positively dreadful eye-twitch. "I'm still at the place that you've got a girl in your house calling you master…you know what, I can't even believe that I overlooked the fact that you **have a house**! What the hell happened when I blinked?!"

"I suggest that you take a cup of the tea," Naruto suggested. "And cancel any plans you have for the rest of the day."

"It's 10:00 a.m.!"

"Oh, sorry. I guess this means you'll be going home late tonight."

…

...

…

"You were exaggerating; it wasn't so bad. It was only a half hour."

"That was only the description of the journey to Wave," Naruto answered with a sweat-drop.

"There's more than that?!"

…

…

…

"Well, you managed to kill most of my day off. It's now three in the afternoon. But thank you, Ms. Yuki. I didn't say it earlier, but you make splendid tea."

"Douitashimashite, Iruka-san," Haku answered with a smile.

"Yeah, it was good." Naruto volunteered. "Anyway, that's how Wave went, how Haku came to live with me and how I got the house."

"Well, I wouldn't phrase it in that manner; but I, in all actuality, sold myself to him."

"So he said, so he said." Umino stroked his chin. "Hmm…Well, I wish you two the best. Hopefully, you both will check yourselves in the nearest mental institution before the end of the week."

"It's not that bad," Naruto defended.

Haku frowned slightly. "Are you saying that it was bad to begin with?"

"No! Aw, damn, this is…no, it's not bad. Sure, I wish I could say that you're not a slave or servant, but…" Naruto let that hang, and Haku filled in what needed to be said.

"It's for the best. Not to mention that I'm grateful for all you've done for me, although it's ironic, pertaining to the fact that I'm the one who should be serving you."

"…" Naruto looked down, before he grinned. "Errm…you're welcome."

"I blinked again," Iruka deadpanned. "I missed something important, but I'm not going to allow it bother me. Anyway, Naruto, I have reason to believe that you will soon have a B rank mission to do."

"A B rank? Really? How come? Why?"

"It's now a requirement to enter the chunin exams," Iruka replied with the air of someone knowledgeable. "I bet that Kurenai and all the other teams who haven't done one will be sure to try to get one soon. I'm guessing your team, 'cause I bet that if you could do what you've done to training ground 4, Kimyō Town and how you've described Wave, Kurenai will be sure to try and nominate your team to enter."

"Just because it's me?" Naruto asked, slightly flabbergasted.

"Just from what happened in Wave alone should make you all qualified and able. But that's my opinion, anyway. I bet-"

A sudden knock came at the door, and Haku got up to answer it. She opened it half-way only slightly on guard, but it was for nought as it revealed Naruto's team sensei. "Kurenai-san? How might I help you?"

"Haku? I suppose that the address that Hokage-sama gave me checks out. Could you tell Naruto to get ready for a B rank tomorrow? He should be ready for the mission briefing at eight a.m. He'll probably need to pack for an extended stay."

The ice-user smiled broadly before opening the door wider as to allow the jounin to peer inside. "He just heard."

Kurenai lifted a questioning eyebrow as she gazed inside. "Oh. Kon-nichi wa, Naruto and Iruka-san. Um…nice house. I still have to rent."

"I know, right?" Iruka piped up. "He's lucky. Too bad if he bites the dust 'cause his place will have to be let go. Who's going to get it?"

"I wouldn't worry about it, Iruka," Kurenai answered. "He's as tough as nails. Later." She walked off without waiting for an answer while Naruto tried to collect himself.

"I think I just got complimented. From Kurenai-sensei, no less. Wow." Naruto commented in disbelief.

After a resounding face-palm, Iruka spoke. "Ugh. I blinked again. Anyway, I'm moving on out of this. Thanks for killing most of my day off," Iruka said sarcastically.

"You're welcome. But are you sure you don't want to stay for dinner? Haku's cooking is to die for."

"You're going to kill me for my portion?"

"Well…maybe," Naruto 'admitted' with a grin. "With you here, she'll cook more food. And if you were to suddenly 'vanish' from the picture, so to speak, your portion would be bequeathed to me."

"But her arm's broken-"

"Ambidextrous," Haku reminded. "I best get started."

 **=X=X= (Next Morning)**

"Well, it's a B rank so it's most likely out of the village. Three days at the least so I should pack for a week," Naruto figured with a knowing vibe.

"I've taken the liberty of packing your bag," Haku addressed him while holding out said bag. The obvious carrier-tool was heavily laden with his clothing and assorted tools where they belonged, but she held it out in her left palm, the hand completely relaxed that spoke volumes as to her physical strength. He took the bag from her politely, but he had a myriad of emotions on his face; Haku couldn't tell if he was angry, happy, sad or relieved. "Master? Is something the matter?"

He released a prolonged exhale. "Haku, I appreciate all you've done for me. I just wish you'd even slow down a bit. Your arm's still broken."

"Are you upset?"

"No, no. Well, at the very least, my departure will give you some sort of respite. Even though we've moved in, you've yet to completely settle in. When I'm gone, you won't have to…to, you know…do what you usually do."

"I understand."

"Good," he answered gratefully. "Since you refuse to take a break, me being gone will force you to do so. Go walk around, meet people. I've even heard you mumble about wanting to do some gardening. Go do that." 'Hopefully by the end of it all, she'll find other purposes and she won't want to bother sticking out for the whole five years. She needs to branch out.' "You deserve it."

"I do?" She asked in a confused tone. "I haven't done much. Nevertheless, I'll do as you instruct."

"That's good to hear," he answered in a relieved tone as he checked the bag. "Uh huh. Clothes, kunai, shuriken. And…oh…" He took out his baton and his tanto in turn, only to observe his pristine reflection in the blade and the baton thoroughly maintained. "Did you even sleep last night?"

A 'I slept well' was all she would say, although Naruto could tell that she had missed at least some of it; he hoped that she would still take what he said to heart.

"Well, both the baton and tanto can be checked off." He placed both of them in their holsters and scabbards before putting on the bag. "Storage seals for potential use, and…what else?" He hesitated, wondering if he should say the next. "…A goodbye kiss?"

"Hmm?" Red tinted her cheeks as blood rushed to her face. "H-huh?"

"I'm joking, I'm joking!" He vocalized hastily. "Take care." He turned fully to the left, turned the knob and pulled on it to attempt his exit through the door. He was pleasantly surprised that during the act of turning, he felt a pair of lips peck his right cheek for a bare half-second. Before he could properly react, he felt himself get pushed through the door and it slammed behind him.

"Goodbye, master!" She exclaimed as she leaned back against the door and tried to gather herself. "Oh boy." 'Time to get started on that garden.'

Outside, Naruto stared at the door, wondering to himself what the hell just happened. "What the heck?" He got no answer, and he set off. To anyone who knew him well, they would have noticed a bit extra 'pep in his step', but even more plain to see was a beaming smile. 'Aw, what the hell. It's fine.'

He was soon walking along and he whistled a tune. He had no idea what the tune was called, but damn-it-all if it didn't sound cheery. He continued and he soon noticed in his path coming from the opposite direction, was what appeared to be someone using what he could perceive as crutches. They were clearly necessary, as the person only had one foot; the other was amputated at the knee. 'Hmm.'

As the distance closed, the specifications as to the individual became clearer and finally, Naruto recognized the person. It was unfortunate, but he realized that it was Koharu; one of the individuals who seemed to hate him with a passion. He reasoned this to be because he was the Jinchuriki for the Kyuubi no Kitsune, but this woman seemed to have it out for him far more personally. It was fortunate that his mood was in too high in good spirits.

"Good morning, Ms. Utatane," he greeted as he stepped out of her way to allow her passage.

"Yeah, good morning to you too, you misbegotten brat," she answered in a tone completely opposite to his. "And it's **Ms. Utatane-sama** to you."

"Isn't the term 'misbegotten' synonymous with the word bastard?"

"I suppose you've finally developed a brain," she answered bitterly. "And here I thought I lost this leg in return for a chuckleheaded, dim-witted, obtuse, oafish, vacuous-"

"I get the idea. Sheesh, you think I'm a moron. But I can play your game. Personally, I think you're acrimonious, embittered, rancorous, resentful, discourteous, impertinent, inconsiderate, ill-mannered, contemptible, deplorable, despicable, appalling, atrocious, horrendous-"

"Did you swallow a damn dictionary?" She eyed him strangely. "And what was that tune you were whistling?"

He was on a role when she interrupted him, and Kami help her if he had been going alphabetically; he could remember every word in the dictionaries he had read the morning following the removal of the seal repressing his memory retaining abilities. "I don't know the name of it, but I think I heard the tune before, sometime around six years ago. Maybe you should know if it were popular or not."

"That tune's older than you." She finally started hobbling past him. 'I believe I once heard **Ito** whistle it, long ago. And he was the only one I've ever heard whistle it.' "I don't see how you could possibly know it, you mendacious bastard."

"Likewise, you decrepit old woman. You're fortunate I'm in a good mood, so I'm afraid I can't play your games anyone as to where descriptions are considered. And just so we're clear, I'm not a liar," Naruto said with a grin.

The old woman 'hmphed' before going on her own way and Naruto went on his to the Hokage's office. All the while, he started to seriously wonder where, how and why he knew such a tune if it were older than him. 'Strange. And I should be able to recall where I learnt it. It must have been floating around in my subconscious. But how the hell am I the cause for her missing leg? It must've been Kurama's attack on the village.'

He glanced back and saw her disappearing form round a sharp corner. "Hmm…and she's unusual. She doesn't come right out and call me a demon or anything of the sort. It's as if she hates me, just for being me…not for being a jinchuriki. I've never done anything to her like pranking or anything of the sort…"

 **=X=X=**

Tenten stepped in through the door after the males of her team. She had barely any idea why they had chosen today of all days to opt for another mission, as they usually saved Mondays to go on missions. Today was Wednesday, the day when they had free training amongst themselves. She wasn't complaining too much, for lately, her personalized training usually consisted of a slightly mundane target practice with an extensive variety of weapons. They were all she had left to her name since her parents' untimely demise-

A shake of the head to clear her thoughts was mildly successful as the bun-haired girl closed the door behind her. Upon turning, she regarded the Hokage and her former Academy teacher, Iruka Umino seated on the opposite end of the room closer to the windows. "Good morning Hokage-sama, Iruka-sensei."

"Good morning Tenten," the Hokage and chunin teacher chorused. Her other team members took up her example and gave their own form of pleasantries before Neji took note that Gai wasn't saying anything. That was so unlike the man, not to mention they were here to receive a mission.

"Gai-sensei? We're going to undertake a mission, are we not?"

"Hmm?" The taijutsu-specializing jounin turned to his Hyuuga student. "Why yes we are, Neji! We're waiting on the others!"

"Others?" Lee asked.

"Why, yes Lee? You'll be going on this mission with nine others of the generation after you!"

Neji promptly donned an intense scowl. He knew that his cousin was one of the teams of this particular generation as she was a year younger and he knew her to be on a genin team that formed one year after his. "Is it fair to believe that we will be taking an A ranked mission because it begs for more help, or will they be riding on our coat-tails as pertaining to experience and effort?"

Iruka frowned at the well-worded insult. "Neji, they're not weak. In fact, I have high hopes for them."

" _Is that all you have for them_?" Neji asked snidely. " _Hopes?_ Not acknowledgement, not respect, just _hopes_?"

The Hokage neglected to comment. He knew of Neji's behavior and cynicism when it came to optimism. He himself had seen branch family members fall before the main branch family due to the seal and for Neji to be growing as a part of the 'lower half' of the Hyuuga, the boy could only be sympathized with as he had certainly lost relatives to the misuse of the curse seal. Likewise, Iruka had decided not answer; he never did like Neji's attitude from day one.

"Where are these nine others?" Neji asked after a while. "I have reason to believe that they will be here at eight a.m., as sensei always makes an attempt to arrive fifteen minutes before a meeting. Shouldn't they as well? It is good practice to be early, after all."

They all heard the doorknob turn and Tenten stepped out of the way to allow admittance, given that she was standing right in front of the door. When it opened, they observed four people enter- a man that led the way that introduced himself as Asuma Sarutobi, and his three genin students. Said students were…rather eccentric. Well, eccentric wasn't quite the correct term. They were diverse, but Neji couldn't determine if any of them were serious about…being **serious.**

One was definitely an Akimichi. He was a rotund boy who wore his family's swirl on his over-plump cheeks and he was currently eating a bag of potato chips and it wasn't even eight in the morning. The second was a Yamanaka…that was obvious given the aroma that rose up from her. It was that of diverse flowers, and the blond of her hair. Neji wasn't too sure, but he couldn't smell any sort of poison on her, and her arms were fairly _undefined_. She was most likely a wannabe kunoichi, or even worse, a fan girl. He had to deal with a number of those from his generation and given the girl's hair-length, she was probably trying to impress a guy. The last one was a Nara…if he were awake or sleepwalking, he couldn't tell.

Neji would have been disappointed, but he had already expected the worst. This mission would most likely be nothing but effort on Team Gai's part, and nothing but slackers and children trying to behave like ninja by the others.

"Ah," Iruka beamed. "Good morning Ino, Chouji and Shikamaru? How's the next Ino-Shika-Cho doing, huh?"

"We're doing fine, Iruka-sensei!" The blonde hailed as she shook her pineapple-headed teammate by the shoulders and occasionally neck. "If only I could get Shika to wake up, we'd be golden!"

"Stop throttling me, troublesome girl!"

"That wasn't throttling…" Ino answered through clenched teeth. "This is!" She begun anew, while grasping the Nara about the neck. "Wake up, you lazy bum!"

"I am awake!" Shikamaru exclaimed. "I walked here, didn't I? Although I had to lean on Chouji the whole time."

Said nodded as he continued to devour his chips, and Neji noted that the bag was of a different colour. That meant that the boy had finished one bag of chips and had moved on to another, even in the short time of their presence. The Hyuuga could only shake her head, although Tenten on the other hand was observing Ino. If they were to face off in the upcoming chunin exam she had heard about from Gai, then Ino would get her ass kicked. Well, not that specifically. What she actually meant was getting decimated by a fusillade of weaponry.

Another two minutes later at ten minutes to the hour, three students alone walked in. Almost immediately, the pink-haired one was squaring off against the blond one in some sort of friendly rivalry, before Iruka cautioned them to be silent; they weren't at some sort of social event, but instead ready to accept a mission, not to mention in the presence of the Hokage. Said village leader was only silent as he had stood facing the window, staring out across that of his domain.

Finally, at five minutes to the hour, two more stepped inside and Neji's eyebrow knitted together when he saw his cousin enter after an evident Aburame. "Good morning, Hinata-sama. How've you been?" He asked in an even tone that dripped with the poison of condescension.

Hinata paid the underlying tone no mind and smiled as she spoke. "Good morning, Neji-niisan. I've been well. Have you?"

"I'm alive and healthy. Simple things as these should be given thanks for…we never know when one day they may be taken from us, least of all from people we don't expect to attempt the deed."

"Hai, we should give thanks," she answered in accordance and consciously realized that by doing so, she had effectively neutralized the barbed insult she was well aware of.

Neji nodded, and Gai couldn't help but worry anew for his Hyuuga underling, as well as Tenten. 'He's definitely not the one to try and aid Tenten. But where's Naruto? He's the whole reason why I settled on going on this mission. The mission will be simple enough, even with the extra people to account for, not to mention that Asuma will be accompanying us. But Naruto's the key. And after they meet each other, I can be sure that they'll become friends.' "Hinata, Shino! Where's Naruto!?" He half-yelled the question in a somewhat friendly manner,

"We don't know. We came independently," Shino replied. "But I am confident that he'll not be late."

"Is that so?" Kiba grinned in a feral manner. "I wonder how the bastard's doing? Is he treating any of you two right? Hinata, Shino?"

"He hasn't treated me unfairly, and he's an ideal teammate." "He's very amicable." Shino and Hinata spoke at the same time, but Kiba had no difficulty telling them apart; he was mainly listening to Hinata's reply. To be perfectly honest, he favored the heiress; not that he'd ever tell anyone.

"Amicable? That means friendly, right? That's good to hear. The last time we even talked, the guy was a complete ass." 'Although how he described his own life was a bit strange, talkin' about how he got starved and nearly murdered.'

"You mean team placements?" Ino queried. "Yeah, the guy just went from a total dead-last to a bast-…wait a minute, didn't he beat you in the fight that one time? I even remember having to poke you with a stick to check if you were still alive after he knocked your block off-"

Kiba growled. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"Come to think of it, do we still get a kiss from Sasuke-kun if we get his goggles?" Sakura asked herself. Both her Uchiha teammate and Ino had heard and briefly shared a look; suddenly, it was as if the entire gathering was taken on the idea of Naruto.

The clock ticked away the next few minutes slowly before it finally struck eight. The very second it ticked onto the hour, the door was opened to allow entrance by the Uzumaki. "Good morning, all. I trust I have not been tardy?"

"You're right on time, Naruto-san," Neji was the first to answer. "And here I believed you would have been inconsiderate enough to keep us waiting."

"You couldn't have been waiting on me," Naruto said. "You were waiting for eight a.m., for my arrival does hinder the passage of time."

"That sounds rather sagistic for one I believe was called the dead-last of his year."

"Ah, yes. I was called that by my peers. No longer am I deserving of such a title, but it keeps me humble." Naruto bowed his head. "May I have your name, Hyuuga-san?"

Neji smirked. "You already do."

Iruka stood up. "Alright, enough pontificating, you two."

He was ignored as Naruto continued. "And if you happen to be in a crowd of Hyuugas? What then?"

"…Should such a time ever occur, you may call me Neji."

"Yosh! My name's Rock Lee!" The spandex wearing boy cried. "I am pleased to meet you, Naruto!"

The Uzumaki turned to the others and gazed at each in turn. "Pleased to meet you too, stranger. I guess everyone else still looks fairly the same."

"Your look hasn't changed since you…changed," Ino answered. "Say, where're your goggles?"

"I don't have 'em. Besides, I think Sasuke's offer so many months ago is null. Don't you think it's time to move on?" He told his fellow blond, shocking her that he knew of her intentions. "Anyway, what's up, Sasuke? You look like you're trying to bore holes right through me with your eyes."

The onyx eyed youth said nothing as he continued to observe the Uzumaki. In fact, he believed that if the grey fabric around his neck was indeed a lower-face mask and that if Naruto pulled up the hood over his head, he'd look just like the man from Suna who made **him** look like a fool. He wondered if Kiba and…never mind Sakura, if _Kiba_ could tell the same. But they weren't allowed to say anything about it. Kakashi had threatened them that they had stumbled upon a secret that may very well cost them their lives if they told a soul. Naturally, they obeyed; but that surely couldn't stop him from talking to his teammates about it. They knew already, in any case.

Likewise, Tenten studied the Uzumaki. She could have sworn she saw those marks before…the ones on his cheeks that appeared to be his birthmarks. It was strange, but she felt like she knew the boy before her, but couldn't remember such a meeting or even seeing aforementioned whisker-like marks. Also, on another note, he gave off the vibe of being 'serious' about his current career choice-…that is, being a ninja. As he walked past her, he seemed to have nodded to her in particular, although Hinata and Shino were to his opposite side. Now being behind him, she saw a short-blade weapon in a scabbard on his back that slanted slightly over his left shoulder, and what appeared to be a holster that had a stick-of-some-sort pointing to the direct right. 'Must be a tanto. But what's in the second one on his waist? Something that small can't be of much use…'

"Well, I'm here," Naruto reaffirmed. "We're wasting time with pleasantries and 'pontificating' as Iruka-san had put it. May we have our mission please?"

Said chunin nodded. It was time for business, so Naruto couldn't very well call to him as if they were familiar all the time, in the same way he wouldn't behave overly-cordial in the presence of the Hokage when the time deemed it necessary **not** to. "That's right. Hokage-sama? May I?"

"That's fine, Iruka," the Sandaime granted. He was already preoccupied with thoughts that haloed the character of 'Seigen' but he wasn't about to have his mind and body operate on two very different fronts. It wouldn't be fair to these hopefuls, but discretely wondered what was becoming of team 7 who witnessed the man, and Naruto's general personality. It still took him by surprise although it had been settling in for months; his patterns of speech, his vocabulary, fighting prowess. All of these reminded him of his successor and his untimely demise. It also reminded him of **his son** , but he'd rather not go there.

"Well, I can see everyone so we'll start. Today, you'll be administered a B ranked mission, as you were told previously by your respective senseis," Iruka started and began to settle in as if he were giving a lecture. "The location is Riyūsu Town, and it's almost thirty miles east of here. I believe that Asuma knows exactly where it, for he has had a mission there previously, according to records."

"That's true," The Sarutobi agreed. "Although nothing came of it all five years ago."

"What's the mission about?" Kiba asked eagerly, much to Shikamaru's annoyance and Neji's chagrin. This was merely fuel to the notion that this generation was full of immature children, but he couldn't say much different for his generation as well. His own team was the only full one left; the others either had dead squad mates or those who resigned when they realized that they had bitten off more than they can chew. It could even be for this very reason why they were taking a B ranked mission with them.

"It's purely investigative."

"…" Asuma's eyes widened a bit. "Don't tell me that it's the-"

"Murders are starting up again." Iruka finished. "This mission was and probably still is very, **very** difficult to solve, and it's for this very reason why it has been elected for so many of you to go when this mission was turned in again a few days ago. Those who can solve mysteries, find clues and he general like. Aburame, Inuzuka, Hyuuga, Nara," he nodded to each clan member in turn as he mentioned their names, and heavy hitters," he stared at Naruto in particular and everyone took note of that. "For when you actually find the person, or **thing** responsible." l

"Thing?" Ino and Sakura parroted dumbly. Tenten was also entertaining doubts herself, but she didn't it show outwardly.

"Hai. A 'thing'." Asuma repeated. "When I first when to investigate, all that's left of the victims are blood stains. Just the stains where they died, and by all means, it wasn't even a full ten pint's worth of stain, if you know what I mean."

"We're stepping up to more work," Shikamaru moaned. "Why us?"

"Oi Shikamaru, you're too lackadaisical," His sensei chastised. "Ino, Chouji, do you feel the same way?" He was disappointed when he saw that Ino wore the very definition of skepticism while Chouji who had been eating red bar-b-qued chips had stopped eating them and put them away, as if he had lost his appetite. That was a rarity, if ever.

"So is that all? Find the murderer and put a stop to it?" Naruto asked simply.

"Basically, hai…?" Iruka answered. He checked the scroll but couldn't see much else to add to it. "You have ten days to return, and it's more-or-less a day's journey to get there."

"Just thirty miles? I am sure that that is only a small distance!" Lee exclaimed. Naruto looked over to him and gestured to the girls with a shake of the head when he had the spandex-wearing boy's attention.

"Girls, Naruto? What does thirty miles have to do with them?" This only served to piss off Ino and Sakura because it felt like an indirect insult of their stamina and capabilities.

Naruto face-palmed as he turned to Tenten. "Has he no tact?"

Neji answered with a no, but the Higurashi merely answered with – "Do I know you?" At this, Naruto's gaze lowered to the ground in trepidation.

"You don't remember me?" He whispered.

Only the bun-haired girl heard what he said given her proximity, and the Inuzuka and Akamaru in his jacket due to their sharp hearing; but that didn't stop the end result of all of the hearers wondering what the hell he was talking about.

"Well, never mind," the Uzumaki looked up and grinned. "It's fine."

At that point, she recalled seeing that kind of symbolism before; the grin framed by whisker marks. She was about to say something when they were all shushed silent by Asuma who told them to head downstairs; they were leaving.

…

…

…

All of them retrieved their respective bags they had left with the secretary downstairs. As the woman gave Tenten her bag, she stared at the Uzumaki while he put his on. She felt like she knew him, but the memories would not come. All she had, was that of single picture that looked like it was depicting his grin. A very accurate depiction, she might add. 'It must have been him who sent the ramen all those months back,' she thought.

Neji took note of how his kunoichi teammate gazed continually at the blond before finally deciding to ignore it. 'It's her own business. I have no inclination to wonder why.'

All the way to the gate they walked and conversed quietly amongst themselves, some to their animals/insects, teammates to teammates and the general like. Asuma and Gai led the way, and at the gate they ran into Kakashi and Kurenai getting logged to leave.

"Whoa Kakashi, Kurenai!" Asuma hailed. "Leaving so soon?"

"We each have our own reasons for leaving at the same time," Yuhi answered. "But I don't know Kakashi's reason."

In the meantime, Sakura knocked Kiba once over the head after he practically began drooling at the sight of the woman who was mainly focused on her own genin. "So, Naruto…"

"Yeah, sensei?"

"Do you **know** anyone in the place where you're going?"

"No," he stated. "I can tell that you think that it might be my fault if this mission escalates in difficulty. Maybe even an S rank since this one is a B."

"For your sakes, I hope it stays at a B ranked one."

"Does this happen often, Naruto?" Shikamaru asked. He received a 'no' for that, but he was told by Hinata that it could be said that it was Naruto's doing why it escalated to an A ranked mission twice in the past. That only served to put everyone off, especially Sasuke and Neji; the former because it made him feel badly outclassed, and the latter because Team Gai had done only one A rank, and it was because of Gai why it was even successful.

Kotetsu groaned when he saw Tenten. "Oh damn. It's the Higurashi girl again."

"What?" The brunette answered in jest with a wide smile. "I didn't do anything!"

"Izumo, it's your turn to check her seals! Damn man, every time we have to check out her whole arsenal!"

His fellow chunin guard sighed. "Just let her go through. You know what? Let 'em all go through. It's too early for this shit. Any of you guys trying to smuggle out anything?"

A myriad of 'no's rose up and the two men nodded. "Alright. Now each of you sign your name and go do your mission, for Kami's sake."

Tenten grinned and held up a 'V for Victory' using her fingers. "Don't worry, the amount I use will only increase in the future." The men's eyebrows possessed a furious tick when they heard that as they shooed her away.

"It always takes nearly a damn hour to inspect the contents of all the seals she uses."

Naruto paid that particular tidbit of information some mind. While he had neglected to make sure that she was 'fine' specifically, he knew that she was taken care of at the orphanage, not to observe how she got on in a wide-range like how she trained and such. He knew Masato, and the orphanage owner knew him too. They had a right to, after all, given Naruto's selfless deed.

"Stay safe you three," Kakashi cautioned team 7. "Make sure you look out for one another."

"You three do the same," Kurenai said to her own team. "And do as you're told. I don't want to hear any complaints when next we meet."

And with that the combined team of fourteen left in one direction, and the two jounin in the next.

…

…

…

"I say tree-hopping. It's basically a forest all the way there. It's perfect." Asuma argued. He didn't really have to, as Gai had agreed to it at the very second of its mention. He never really had it in him to walk, or to 'take it easy'. He was always enthusiastic for a challenge to push him past his limits, but he had a presence of mind-…if he had a mind akin to that of a beast, then it was like that of a serpent, or a mongoose or a fox. Speaking of foxes-

"We're tree hopping, all! Asuma and I will lead alongside Neji and Lee, then the members of team ten to the left, team seven to the right and team eight along the middle. Naruto and Tenten will bring up the rear to make sure that no one straggles behind!"

That at first glance was fairly symmetrical. Four at the front, three to each side, two in the middle and two in the back. It was fairly rounded, but all of those who possessed higher cognition like Shikamaru, Shino, Neji and Naruto had to wonder why he paired Naruto and Tenten to the back. Tenten wasn't complaining, as it was sure to give her some privacy to talk to her counterpart.

Which was exactly Gai's doing. Not that he knew that the two individuals already had a mixed history together.

Ten grabbed his shoulder and made them lag behind just a bit to make sure that at the volume at which they spoke wouldn't carry to the others. "I know you. But I can't remember where. Help me out."

"Exactly. **I did** ," he answered succinctly.

"You're the one who sent the ramen, right? The one that had those pictures under the bowls that looked like-"

"I sent 'em," Naruto agreed. "I couldn't afford much at the time with my allowance, but it was all I could do."

"It's the thought that counts. I always wondered who sent it." She took out a familiar-looking piece of paper out of her pocket and held it out to him. Unfolding it, he couldn't help but grin as he held up the sticky-note sized piece of paper.

"Heh, a perfect match." He held it up to his own face as he did so and she couldn't help but marvel at the fact that it did, almost like an identical image. She took the paper back from him as he continued. "Well, in any case, I did send the ramen over, but I'm talking about I did help you. I've helped you **a lot** more than you know. I'm surprised that you could hold on to a drawing on a piece of paper for so long, and yet not remember me for **me**."

"I know!" She hissed. "But I don't remember! But it's before I went to the orphanage, I just know it!"

"I think it's because you were catatonic at the time; you even nearly died, if I hadn't done something."

"Catatonic?" She knew the definition of the word, but she couldn't imagine herself in such a state, much less when. Something happened, but she had no recollection of what. All she knew, was that after **the incident** happened, a lot of her life was a blur before she found herself in the orphanage.

 **I'm cutting the chapter here.**

 **Well, you guessed it. It's another arc. I bet you're thinking 'damn, what about the chunin exams?!' and all that jazz. It's right after this one, trust me. Besides, haven't you realized that each girl basically have their own arcs? Tenten's going to have this one, and if you feel up to it, you can take a gander at the drama circulating Tenten in the previous chapters, namely 6, 8 and 13. All I've done has remained unchanged; only spelling and grammatical errors have been fixed so don't think I'm messing with you where the plot is concerned. I've stated from the very beginning that this plot is a bit complex and I've a habit of slapping clues and hints in your faces and then laughing about it when you ignore it or miss it. Forgive me for being unkind, but those who're caught up to speed recently in 'Living Twice' know what I'm capable of! HAH!**

 **Trust the plan. All of the puzzle pieces will fall into place.**

 **This arc is completely necessary, and it shouldn't be longer than three chapters. (That doesn't include this one.) As I've said before, I want to be an individual who brings originality to my own fics, especially where ideas are concerned and this one is yet another. This has…yet another, as far as I can see and have researched. No one else has done what I'm planning, so that's a good sign.**

 **Also, just so we're clear, I'm not bashing anyone. What you just read in the second half of this chapter was me trying to capture everyone's two dimensional version of their character. Sooo sorry if you think I made Sakura and Ino look bad if you really like 'em, so on and so forth. While the fic heavily consists of character development, I can't be bothered with most of the rookies' character portrayal. I hope (and know) that you understand.**

 **Um...I think that's it. I better go ahead and work on somethin' else.**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	33. Chapter 33

**Breaking Limits**

 **It's Wednesday afternoon, and I'm behind schedule by three-four days. Type MRAY, type!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. But on the bright side, at least I don't have to worry about making episodes of the series. I can't even draw all that well, much less make a GIF image. A twenty minute+ episode? Get real.**

 **33.**

The setting sun streaked long shadows that crept along the surfaces where they lay. Soon, they were overrun by the shadows of fourteen people as they entered the inn. Once inside, it wasn't all that difficult to acquire rooms in which to sleep in for the twelve genin. However, it was finalized that all the teams were being broken up, mainly at the girl's insistence, and Neji's insistence that he refused to share a room with more than two imbeciles. Strangely, it was as if those who thought they were being under-minded were the very same he was referring to, namely Kiba, Lee and Chouji and to some extent, Naruto himself although he ignored the affront. Before they could actually come to blows, Naruto actually picked out the places for everyone.

That threw both jounins for a loop; the Sarutobi of the two started to wonder if Naruto really was all that which his father had made him out to be. That is, one not to be taken lightly, nor one to be judged to be nothing more than a simpleton.

"Alright, let's just go with Naruto's idea," Asuma ordered. "Ino, Sakura, Tenten and Hinata will take room 10." He handed the key to Ino, but not before a warning that they better take care of the room.

"As if!" She became upset at the caution. "If anything, tell that to the boys! Boys are slobs in general!" 'Besides you-know-who, of course.'

"Whatever. Gai and myself will take room 11. Neji, Shino, Lee and Kiba will take room 12. Finally, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke and Chouji will take room 13."

"Room 13? Damn, it's starting to feel like I'm in a story about my whole life with everyone else as supporting characters," Naruto muttered. "Which floor is it?"

"It's ten rooms to a floor so I'm guessing-"

"So the girls are downstairs closest to the staircase and all the males are upstairs to assure them privacy. Also, you and Gai-sensei can just go down the stairs or the girls up the stairs quickly so it's as if the rooms were right next to each other in case of an emergency. Right?" He asked demurely.

"Errm…that's right, Naruto. How the hell did they call you a dead-last?" Asuma asked aloud, completely bewildered.

"My mind was pathetic. It no longer is."

"Is that so…?" Neji studied the Uzumaki, searching for cracks. "Why would you term yourself in that fashion?"

"It's the truth. That's why," Naruto answered the white-eyed boy dryly. "Now before Chouji asks, where and when do we eat? He just ran out of chips, given by how he keeps pulling up used wrappers searching for a snack he hasn't eaten yet."

'He's very observant, I'll give him that.' Shikamaru wondered. 'Where has this Naruto been in the Academy? He misses one day of schooling and he comes back in a new outfit, a low haircut and some weapons, not to mention a whole lot stronger. Maybe I can ask him later. Tch, maybe not. All of this is too damn troublesome, and if people are leaving the town because of the murders, the guests will leave the inn first. That's why we got four rooms so easily and cheaply. But why did Asuma pick this inn specifically? Experience?'

"Food? Yikes. How the hell are we going to feed all twelve of you for a week?" Asuma mumbled. 'Not to mention Chouji. It's like we'll be feeding twenty-four of them for a week…or was it ten day? Shit.' As soon as the statement left the man's mouth, Naruto pulled him aside, telling him to feed them tonight. Then, he told the man to have faith…faith that Kami would 'provide'.

Not too sure what Naruto meant, the man acquiesced to the demand. After all, Naruto had pulled off wonders in Wave that got Team 8 fed. He suspected that Naruto was up to something but he wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Fewer headaches that way. Kurenai hadn't done that and loot at what happened; afraid to go on a simple B rank mission with the Uzumaki. Although this B rank in and of itself was far from simple.

 **=X=X=**

"This canteen has variety, I'll give it that." Chouji hemmed in satisfaction. "Now for a bath."

"Me first!" The girls yelled and made a break for the bathrooms. Before all others could do the same, Naruto cautioned Tenten discretely to walk with him. Not completely sure what his aim was, she assented to his request.

…

…

…

"Alright, what happens now?"

"You're going to have to remember."

"Remember what?" All of this was becoming increasingly bizarre to her. They had only been walking for around ten minutes while Naruto had gone here and there, asking around for a bank. Currently, she had no idea what this was all about but Naruto promised that if they didn't find one in the next five minutes then he'd go back to the inn.

"How would you remember how to get back there? We've made so many twists and turns and I could barely keep track of them. How would you remember where it is?"

"…" He tapped his temple. "I can't forget anything."

At this particular phrase, her head began to hurt her severely as she was racked by a splitting headache. "Errg! My- My parents! That…night!"

Spotting an overreacting episode, he led her aside by the shoulder and wrist under the awning of a closed shop, placing her to sit on one of the chairs left behind next to the closed entryway. He had to hold her up by around the shoulders in a side-hug to keep her upright as she flailed a bit in her woes.

"T-t-the explosions! It's-"

"Shhh…" The Uzumaki cooed. "Just think clearly, and try to remember."

Somehow, his repetition of this had a mild hypnotic effect on her as she began to think with stark clarity, nearly reliving all of her purposely blanked past.

 **Flashback**

 _Tenten kicked at the pebble angrily. Unfortunately, it didn't give under the force of her foot but at the very least, the pebble only offended the sandal and not her toes. She was about to attempt another kick at it when she was stopped by her mother as they trekked through the open-air market._

" _Don't. We didn't spend money on those sandals just for you to destroy them before their time. The money's already tight this month."_

" _Aw, Kaa-chan."_

" _That's enough. Besides, we should just hurry home before all anything else."_

" _Why? Is it because of those men who wanted money from you and tou-san?"_

" _Hai, musume." Mrs. Higurashi realized that the sun was setting quickly and hurried even faster. In the mother/daughter haste, they accidentally knocked a young boy to the ground when going around a blind corner. After pausing to help him up, she realized that it was the jinchuriki and quickly let go, also pushing him back down in the process._

" _Ugh! It's you! Damn it!"_

 _The eight year old scrambled to pick up his backpack off the ground and tried to sling it back on. Seeing him having some difficulty, Tenten helped him insert his arm into the strap, just moments after her mother realized that her daughter was actually helping the boy instead of shunning him. All it earned the youngest Higurashi was a slap in the face before her arm was nearly yanked from her shoulder as her mother resumed her speed to get home. Looking back behind her, Tenten saw the boy's eyes water up before he ran off to a nearby wagon in motion and dove inside, hiding there as the wagon was waved past by two bored looking ninjas at the gate._

 _She never quite understood this, but she didn't have time to mull over it as she was virtually dragged home before the so-called 'Night Men' came after them._

…

…

…

" _Oh, no! What did you do?!"_

" _I didn't have any money! They'll be coming for us!"_

 _Tenten listened at the door, hearing every detail that passed between her parents. She was told to go to bed, but curiosity, worry and confusion of the day's events kept her fully awake. First, there was the usual morning of practicing how to throw knives so she could go the ninja Academy, then her mother asking her to follow her to the market in the early afternoon. That was also fairly normal, as she was another pair of hands that could carry the goods home. However, there were half-dozen men who accosted her mother, asking for money. She had just completed their shopping so naturally, they had none to give._

 _What happened after was not pleasant to the hearing sense, or the sense of sight as Tenten was forced to watch her mother get assaulted about the face, even after both of their pleas to let them go._

" _Alright. We're not animals," One of themstated coldly. "We'll be coming for what is owed to us tonight. You're going to have to either let go the land or give us the payment. You've been behind the payment for a whole year."_

" _We'll pay it back!"_

" _Sure you will," the man sneered. "One way or another. We don't need the eyesore house, though…"_

 _And all of that was said seemed to fit in with what her parents were arguing about now._

" _They don't want the house?" Her father asked. "They must want the money. How are we supposed to come up with that much?"_

" _I knew that the blacksmithing would come up fruitless," her mother complained. "Only Tenten-chan uses them and that's for practice! We have too much blacksmithing competition and we owe those men that mortgage money!"_

" _What do you want me to do?! We'll get by. I promise!" Her father was pleading._

" _I…believe you. Besides that, me and Tenten-chan ran into that insufferable demon brat again. Maybe it's even a curse from him why we're doing so poorly."_

" _It's not a curse. Besides, I heard that foxes were lucky. It's only bad luck if you mistreat them."_

" _That boy is a fox demon?" Tenten asked herself in a whisper. "The marks kinda look like a fox, but if its bad luck to mistreat them and good luck to help them. He can't be one; it must be a coincidence in appearance-"_

 _She had no time to finish that line of thought as her mother continued speaking to her spouse. "Maybe we could have a high-promotion sale for the weapons."_

" _When has that ever worked? If anything…no…the Uchiha police force are dead. If only that son-of-a-bitch Itachi had only killed himself alone, we could just go to them and complain. We could even get some sort of special attention to get protection."_

" _Maybe we should go to the anbu."_

" _It's not like those night men going to kill us. It's like a bank statement; they'll only try to rough us up to remind us that we owe them. Besides, if we get the anbu involved, it might make things worse."_

" _Those bastards gave me a black eye! If it were you out there, do you think you would've gotten off so easily? I'm a woman and you're a man. If anything, they'd stab you. The last time you ran into them is the reason why you only have half of your left ear!"_

 _Downstairs, Tenten could hear loud thuds landing on the door, just moments before a heavy impact one must've knocked the door down. In the bedroom, Tenten could hear her parents squeal in fright before the door opened and nearly struck her in the face, had it not been for her afore thought to stand two or so feet away from it from the beginning. She had ample time to react and to place her hands up to stop it._

" _Tenten-chan?" Her father hissed as he saw her. "Come inside here, quickly!" He grabbed her hand and pulled her inside the bedroom her parents shared before locking the door behind her. "Get under the bed!" He scream-whispered. Her mother was in full agreement with frantic nodding as he pushed her under the bed when she seemed to have frozen. "Quick!"_

 _A moment after she had accomplished the action, the bedroom door was kicked in by a thickly-muscled mountain of a man, soon followed by his comrades. The shadow of the bed held Tenten hidden from view but she had sight of everyone's ankles up close and up to their waists with distance. She had gone into a form of unresponsive shock as time slowed down, watching-_

 **Flashback end**

"My parents got butchered!" She gasp-sobbed in hysterics as she recalled the night. She had been on memory-suppressing medication for years since her mental evaluation, but she had never recalled their demise being this…graphic.

"I…this wasn't my intention, I only wanted to know if you remembered _me_ ," Naruto stammered. "But if it means anything, I can only offer my condolences."

She half-bit the back of her wrist. "You said that to me already. But-…you ran away. You smuggled yourself out of the village! I saw you!"

"Memories are out of sequential order," Naruto muttered. "But it's getting late. We should go back. I don't want any of us to become a murder statistic, and you shouldn't be out on the road in your condition-"

"Don't talk to me as if I'm crazy!" Tenten had all of the appearances of someone who was frazzled and she had a wild look in her eyes; Naruto could tell that she was in hysterics. "I'm not crazy! The psychiatrist may think I'm dumb, the Academy teachers may think I've gone off the deep end, Gai-sensei think I've got too much emotional baggage and I don't want **you** of all people to think I've gone bat-shit crazy!"

"I would never think that of you." The Uzumaki promised. "I'm merely thinking of our safety. We're out here on mission to find and stop the murders, whoever or **whatever** is causing them."

"…" She paused at this, giving it some thought. Soon, she broke out in a wide grin. "That's alright. I've got a strong bodyguard to make sure nothing happens to me while I remember my forgotten past." Somehow, the statement had sounded completely sincere and sarcastic at the same time. Naruto himself had a hard time trying to pick apart the difference but she went under again as her eyes glazed over.

 **Flashback**

 _Her face was frozen in a grimace as she watched her father's steady lifeless eyes seemingly stare at her when its rolling came to a stop at the foot of the bed. She was as silent as her now dead parents as she subconsciously listened to the men mill about downstairs._

" _Ready those god-damned explosive tags. I want this place turned to rubble in the next two minutes."_

" _Hai, boss."_

" _Make sure you put the bombs at the foundations, and on the inside of the corners. We don't want to get the other houses nearby caught in the blast."_

" _Hai, hai."_

 _Gathering her wits, she crawled from under the bed and she regarded that of the bedroom of her parents. Blood was splayed everywhere and ran in rivulets in the corners where it didn't quite reach. Her body moved on autopilot as she hobbled to the window next to the bed and let herself out unto the sloping roof outside. It was hazardous, but she was fortunate enough not to slip and slide as she shuffled to the far end of the roof and let herself sag down unto the edge, letting her legs dangle in an effort to get her feet closer to the ground._

 _Once that was achieved, she pushed herself off with her hands and took a rough tumble as she fell to the concrete nearly a dozen feet below._

" _Agh!" She fell improperly and felt like she sprained or perhaps even broken her ankle. Even more so, her whole upper torso had slapped against the ground and now it felt like she had broken something around her gut area…something painful._

" _Errgh…" She pushed herself up but somehow, she didn't pay any attention to the pain. It was as if her mind was still in the bedroom with her dead parents and apparently didn't find it appropriate to register pain in her body. It was all she could do to manage even a limp as the house exploded from behind her._

 _Glancing back, her nerves shattered as she watch the house get caught up in a myriad of explosions that razed it to the ground, signaling it as the life she knew. With that thought in mind, as she wandered off into the welcoming embrace of the night._

…

…

…

" _There's nothing left. All that's there are ashes. The daughter, Tenten, somehow limped all the way to Hokage's tower and from there, got herself carried immediately to the hospital."_

" _Did she see anything?"_

" _We don't know. She's been asleep ever since she got here."_

" _Ask her now. She's awake, given by how she's staring at us."_

" _Hmm? Oh? Tenten, how're you doing?"_

 _She made no attempt to respond. Rather, all she did was let tears stream down her cheeks as memories of the previous night before. No pain in her body that she felt currently would ever measure up to even a tenth of the emotional one that racked her entire being._

 **Flashback end**

"Well? Do you remember me completely? Or is that just a pipe dream?"

"Dream? Ah, I see what you did there." Tenten got up off of the chair and stretched. "Just take me home."

"Home?"

"Back to the inn. You said that you remember where it was. In fact, I remember how you've told me that quite a few times and you've never disappointed." She mustered a good-natured grin as she took her hand in his. "C'mon friend, lead the way."

"Huh? So you do remember me?"

"Not quite fully yet, no," she admitted. "But I'll get there."

 **=X=X=**

"I think Naruto's up to something."

"Naruto-kun? He's fine." 'I believe he's with Tenten-chan. It's hard to believe that they're already hitting it off.' Gai added the last in thought before returning his attention to Asuma.

"Well, I have a feeling that we're going to get some money or food or something of the sort between now and tomorrow evening. If you see anything of the sort, just ignore it. It'll probably be Naruto's doing, and I don't want him to think that we're on to him."

"Why would you suggest this?"

"Do you remember what Kurenai said about Wave?" Asuma pontificated. Before pausing to acknowledge Gai's potential response, he continued. "Naruto has this knack for pulling off wonders out of nowhere. While I might find it suspect, so long as I don't have to feed twelve genin 2-3 times a day for a little over a week, I'm not going to question him about it. But I wonder why he and Tenten have left. Is she in on what he's planning?"

"I don't think so," the Taijutsu specialist replied. "To be frank, I approve if she pars with him. You know as well as I do about the…trials she's gone through."

"And you think that Naruto is better than a trained psychiatrist? Better than Inoichi, even?"

"I never said he was better than them," Gai answered wisely, rather unsettling his fellow jounin who thought it was out of the man's character. "But the differences between the two are in completely different leagues." He looked up as he cocked his head like a listening dog. "I hear them returning. Tomorrow, we will continue with the mission. But I read your mission report, at Hokage-sama's request. We should warn everyone about the murders."

"There's one case every one or two days…" The Sarutobi trailed off as he removed a cigarette and lit up to draw a toke on it. "I daresay that there will be one tonight. I hope I'm wrong. I really do."

 **=X=X=**

"Why the fuck did you pick the meeting at night, huh Gomi? The damn murders are starting up again! We shouldn't even be out at night!"

"Calm down, yah yellow bastard. We need to discuss this, and tonight's the best night. Besides, you know that the murders can happen in the day too. Your own wife is proof of that." Gomi's words only served to make Hāfu upset, but he soon placated the irate man with smooth talks of extravagant profit to be had. "Anyway, with these murders starting up again, I'll be ready to oust the damn mayor to get the position myself with the point of his ineffiecency and bogus citizen security. And with him out of the way-"

"Why the hell would you want the position?" Hāfu asked, growing confused. "It's a thankless job and I know the mayor personally too. Went in with a full head of black hair and not two years later he looks like an old man."

"That's 'cause he's working too hard. Me however…" Gomi trailed off. "I know to go with the flow. Besides, the town's already mine. All I really need is that position of power to assume my right to run the town from a so-called 'legal standpoint.'" He guffawed as he said this, making his meeting rather awkward. The laughter echoed slightly from the board-made warehouse that was as big as a barn, but completely empty save for the men, three of Gomi's lackeys and large crates that held hollowed dolls, stuffed completely with opium and heroin. Why this location, Hāfu had no idea; although it begged the question why they were meeting in the first place.

"So what is it do you want from me? Surely it's not to discuss the Mayor's grey hairs."

"It's not. I'm buying out your doll factory. My current dealer can't keep up."

"Dolls? What the hell do you want my factory? It's all I have left of Warui! She died and left the factory to me, not just so I could sell it to you! Knowing what you sell, you don't have any need for the dolls!"

"I don't want the dolls. I only want the disguise they offer," Gomi pontificated. "Customs don't check your dolls. Your factory has had such a wonderful track record and full customer satisfaction guarantee that your crates just get waved past the checking line with a damn smile. My dealer doesn't have that, and it's becoming a pain in the ass to bribe a new person in customs every week to make sure they don't check the dolls I already have."

"You want to smuggle your shit inside my dolls." Hāfu stated simply. "No."

"Think about it," Gomi went on the offensive, smirking as he saw his associate flinch. "I'll soon be mayor, and I'll be able to take your business to fantastic new heights! All I'm asking is for you to scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours."

"I know what you've done. I know your type. If I scratch your back, you'll only stab mine. I ain't selling out!"

"And when I become mayor, I can't assure that your two-by-four spread factory will remain open. And for your _information_ …your wife Warui was going to sell me the factory all those years ago. I'm merely asking you now that you do what she was about to do."

"No! She…" Hāfu couldn't believe that his wife would sell her childhood dream of owning said factory to a known drug dealer, just so he could smuggle his contraband. "She died…was it you who killed her?!"

"No…she got killed the very morning of the day in which the sale was to change hands, unfortunately. So just sell me the factory. I'll make the price right…" Gomi took a briefcase from one of his bodyguards and opened it with the front facing Hāfu, making the man's eyes widen at the contents, that of it being packed to the brim with ryo bills of the highest order. "You see this? I know that your little hands-on factory has to stay open for twenty-four hours for a month straight to make this much. And what you see here is merely the first installment. I'll continue paying as long as the factory works and my…goods go through."

The offer was tempting. Basically, he'd be earning two months money in a single month for the rest of his natural life… It doesn't start as much, but it was the difference between a million in six months, and two million by six months.

And all he had to do was to allow for Gomi's drugs to inhabit his dolls, to get them where they needed to go. While some children might get upset, his toys were so well made that his factory was failing for years financially by some cruel twist of irony. When everyone has one that lasts for life, no one needs to buy the product again. No wonder his wife was so easily coaxed to sell.

Warui…

"Her…death was a sign…" Hāfu began, startling Gomi. "She died the morning she was going to sell out. I WON'T! If you think I'm going to sell, you can just go play 'hide-and-go-fuck yourself!'" **(1)**

Gomi stared at the man stonily as the hysterical man continued. "Why, I bet that the best part of you dripped down the crack of your bitch mother's ass and stained the fucking mattress brown! You piece of shit! Hiding drugs in children's toys-"

"Kill him." Gomi said simply.

 **=X=X=**

Tenten woke with a start at a dead-on six in the morning. It was partially out of habit why she did so, but she could absently tell that she was going through the motions. Getting ready for the day as quickly and silently as she could to avoid waking other sleepers such as her current room-mates, she finally took her most handy weapon seals and was outside as prompt as a blink. She knew that the rest of her teammates were most likely awake and trying to get some training in and nothing said that she couldn't do the same.

Although she didn't quite know what to do with her weapons once she was about to commence.

Everyone else on her team mainly specialized in taijutsu, even Neji; the Hyuuga was merely augmenting his strikes with chakra for his jyuuken. Lee used the **Goken** (Strong Fist) body technique, as did their sensei. While she had some passing knowledge in taijutsu, she specialized mainly in weaponry and couldn't find any fault with what she already had.

However, as she did expect to find her team, she did not expect to see that quite a few of the genin on the mission were currently training in the large open field behind the inn. She could see Sasuke, Shino, Hinata (she had no idea how she missed her presence), Naruto, Kiba and her team members, each training to in their own fields. With a bit of eccentric thinking, it felt like a bit of showing off a bit what they knew, no one was going to fully train in front of each other…it might show the others what their limits were.

While she also had the same inclination, she decided to just go to her fallback of throwing her weapons for target practice.

She trekked around everyone else, giving them a wide berth to avoid getting caught up in spars, flying weapons and the like. It was a massive coincidence that her final destination landed her a place close to Naruto who was muttering something about 'level five' and how his arms were 'killing him' as he strained to continue his pushups.

'Huh? 'Level Five'? What's that all about?' "Oi, Naruto. Can't do a few pushups?"

Naruto let himself fall face first unto the ground, sighing tiredly. The action only served to make the bun-haired girl smile to herself for reasons unknown to her. Shaking her head, she walked over closer to him and helped him up. "I…only…m-m…managed…thirty!" He gasped, alarming her to think he had a terrible physique.

"Just thirty! Are you that weak?!"

Her voice carried, and Naruto was so piss-tired that he couldn't even make a proper face-palm. "Can't you be more _discrete_?" By now, he could see that everyone who was there currently had their attentions averted to the two, and mixed reactions were abound. Well, he could understand why his peers could gawk at him, but he couldn't understand Neji and Shino's seeming frown, and how Hinata seemed…thoughtful. Whether it was for what was just spoken or how he was leaning against Tenten, he had no idea which. She seemed to have the same look during his fellowship with Haku, and the Uzumaki couldn't help but feel like he should be concerned.

"Naruto can't manage more than thirty? Akamaru, you hearing this?"

"*Bark* *Woof*!"

"Exactly! Wait a minute…I'm not weaker than a weakling!"

"*Woof* *Woof* *Growl*!"

"If he's weak and I lost to him then I'm a-…I thought you were on my side!"

"Hey Kiba, sounds like your ninken is telling it as it is," Naruto half-smiled in jest as he tried to stand on his own. Activating the next tier (Level 5) on his gravity seal was currently having some serious repercussions and he hoped that he wouldn't suffer the victim to anyone suggesting to him how and what to do, or even worse, try to pick a fight with him. Currently, he was trying to douse the fire of riling with the waters of good cheer but he was failing.

"Oh yeah? Then how about I knock you down a peg or two, huh hotshot?!" Kiba fumed. He hated being reminded of how he lost to Naruto but only he was privy to what his dog told him. He may be a puppy, but that dog had the sense of humor of a comedian and brayed like a donkey.

"I'm not going to fight you. That won't prove a thing."

"That's true," Hinata butted in eagerly. "Naruto-kun pushed down a massive tree with his bare hands alone. You can't compare-"

"Hinata!" Shino called in chastisement. Said heiress turned to her teammate and saw him shake his head slightly to avert her from her current vocal path. Glancing to Naruto, she saw him mirroring the same action. She held her head down slightly in shame but the damage had already been done.

'Why would she do that? Is she suddenly eager to please? I didn't ask her to-' Naruto's line of thought was broken as everyone began yelling again but the two jounin merely looked on interestedly; both for two entirely different reasons. One was watching to preserve the peace if needs be and the other was gazing at his kunoichi student and her blond cohort as they seemingly stood par against everyone else by means of location.

"…" Neji stared holes right through his cousin. "I can detect no lie. Either she truly believes that what she stated and was mistaken by perception, or it truly occurred."

"It must've been a twig," Kiba grumbled as he watched his other make teammate grow bored and returned to his training. "Ain't no way Naruto of all people could do something like that."

"Hinata-sama? Are you sure you saw such an event with clarity?" Neji asked his counterpart, worrying her if she should answer or to remain stalwart in the negative answer team 8 had communicated to her. But she, like Naruto disliked lying. Problem was, she wasn't as talented as double-speak.

"Hai," she answered sullenly, hoping that her crush wouldn't judge her for her blunder. Fortunately, he didn't as he was well acquainted with Hyuuga customs, especially that of a need for integrity. Her answer, however, took Neji by surprise. He was used to her being completely tremulous, so even a moody answer was a vast improvement.

"Well, there you have it, Inuzuka. So it did happen." Neji turned his back and everyone else and resumed going through some katas, experimenting with his agility and ignoring all else as Lee began yelling Naruto down (Gai was egging him on) to train with him, claiming that he was 'youthful'.

Asuma whistled shrilly. "That's enough of that! Everyone, as you were before."

Tenten allowed Naruto to brace on her shoulder as she helped him to the tree, where he slumped. "C'mon Naruto. I know you can do more than thirty. Were you sprinting for miles with rocks in each hand before you started doing the pushups or what?"

"No. Just the pushups."

"Naruto…"

"Yeah?"

"You're a wimp."

"I could still beat you, you know."

She had to suppress a chortle. "Feh, I can do more than thirty on one hand! One of the so-called benefits of having a taijutsu master for a sensei."

"This is why I prefer training alone," the blond mumbled under his breath, "So no one is there to laugh when you fail. Anyway," he began anew with a louder volume. "If you think you're so strong, why don't you arm-wrestle me. Hmm…you know what? Never mind. It can't end well for me."

"Waddya mean?" She taunted with a self-satisfied smirk. "Afraid you're going to lose?"

"No. If and when I win, people are going to say I only have enough strength to beat a girl. If I lose, then yeah, I'm a wimp."

"So you're afraid that people will think lesser of you? Because I'm a girl?!"

"Oh shit." Naruto gaped at the rapidly growing upset weapon's mistress. "I did not think this through."

" **You got that right, Mr. Smooth-Move."**

'What the-? Kurama? When did you get back?'

" **Shortly after I sensed that you were getting utterly wasted when it came to stamina. I thought you were in a fight to see if I could get some excitement besides watching Narmizu practice his water technique, but I guess I was wrong. It's more interesting watching your brother practically drown each time he tries an attempt at his A rank jutsu. Maybe even Narburei testing out his invented galvanic touch on animals to make them insane, just to have some cockfighting."**

Naruto shook his head. 'Meh, that sounds like Psychosis to be sure. I assume he's invented a technique that alters brain mechanics-'

" **Don't try explaining to me. He tried to do that for a whole hour before I had to tell him to shut up."**

The Higurashi looked on silently as her friend's eyes had seemingly glazed over. "Hey, Naruto. Talking to _him_ again?"

"Hmm?" Naruto came to quickly, registering her question. "Yeah."

" **Hey, is that Tenten?"** Kurama tried to peer through his containers eyes. **"She's growing up. Damn, it's like looking at a before and an after picture. Tell her I said hello."**

"He says hello."

"Hello to you too. Anyway, Naruto, just arm-wrestle me! Damn, what do you have to lose besides-"

"My dignity? Money in a bet? General street credibility for morals and standards? Respect from my peers? Not much after those," the boy deadpanned. 'This level five tier is no joke! Why would it go up to ten?! Ten must be suicide!'

" **It's a goal worth achieving. Don't you remember how much ass you kicked in wave at just level four? Perhaps by ten, you're not even walking on the ground."**

"I will run like the wind." Naruto muttered. "I will even outrun it."

" **That's the spirit. Anyway, I'm outta here. I'm gonna go check on the weapons user. He's over in his blacksmithing place close to iron country. He's mass producing a lot of…well, I'll let him tell you when he's ready."** Kurama's voice faded with his last words and Naruto perked up at the realization that his brothers were training like mad. Who was he to remain stagnant?

"I gotta get to training." Heaving up himself, Naruto once again resumed his plain exercises, trying to get used to the seals added effects. He could feel his muscles aching and his bones creaking, threatening to break but persisted nonetheless. Tenten merely watched interestedly at the boy, wondering how every ounce of effort was costly, even if it were only a single step. It looked rather pitiful, but if only she knew how the world felt like to him.

"I don't think I want to arm-wrestle you anymore." Tenten remarked coolly.

"…Why…?" He strained out.

"One, your palms must be sweating like crazy. Two, I'd probably break your arm, what with how weak and fragile you must be. What happened to you?"

"Don't lecture me," Naruto chastised. "Just talk normally so I can take my mind off of this."

 **Flashback**

" _Alright, Tenten-chan, your new family," the long blond haired man suggested to the nine year old. "Their names are…"_

 _She didn't even listen to the man as he introduced her 'brand new parents' to her. What? Her_ _ **new**_ _parents?! Where were her originals?! All that was left of them was cremated and the ashes laid to the winds to scatter._

 _She didn't even recall her second parents' faces as her home was razed again. The night men were relentless. They…needed the land. They wanted the land._

 _They wanted, they_ _ **needed**_ _her dead and buried._

 _Who's to say that the death of the Uchihas affected only one individual? It affected all and the village suffered. Ninjas weren't licensed to keep the peace, but they were encouraged to. What no one had yet to realize, was that it was VERY easy to bribe a ninja to look the other way when he didn't have to risk his neck for it. Only values._

 _A ninja didn't necessarily have values, nor did they really have morals. They might have a conscience from time to time, but that was it._

 _Tenten had it all figured out. She was no dunce and her catatonia provided her with time and quiet necessary in which to think. Unfortunately, all she really did was to mull over the fate of her parents. That and the fact that she matured quickly enough to realize that the ninjas of the village wouldn't necessarily turn to help another in trouble._

 _Especially when the perpetrator could be another ninja._

 _Thus, the night men who killed her parents tracked her down and her new parents decided to wash their hands of her, right in front of her. They simply yelled 'take her, take her, and leave us alone.' This was after they had had her for four months_

 _Tenten's response was to bolt through a closed glass window and yet another house razed again as an 'example' and another attempt to seize land…the dead owned nothing. It was forfeit._

 _She found her way back to the Hokage and her long blond-haired handler, covered in glass cuts, suffering from shock, her usual on-and-off periods of catatonia and a new phobia as the man had put it._

 _ **Ekrixiphobia**_ _._

 _The fear of explosions._

" _But from our monthly sessions, she told me that she wants to become a kunoichi. I can recommend some memory suppressant medication for these traumatic events. They have no side effects, but they have to be taken at a particular period at certain intervals to ensure that it dulls these memories only._

" _I see," the hokage answered. "In any case, until we can find those responsible, we'll have to find her another home, I suppose."_

…

…

…

 _She now had the cognition of twenty-year old, the memory of a five year old, all bundled together in the body of a ten and-a-half year old._

' _Why won't they leave me alone? This is my third home…I need…it must be that fox demon kid's fault! No…no…It's not his fault. It's kaa-chan's fault. She knocked him down and I helped him. That's why they are dead, and I live. There's no other explanation!'_

 _She waged a war within the confines of her own mind as she watched the men approach her as she sat on her bed in a lotus position on her bed, silent as they waved a hand in front of her face. She registered it mentally, but not physically as her eyes failed to follow the hand movement. It raised mixed reactions among the six men there…all of those responsible for killing her parents…and her 'parents' and her 'parents', right in front of her. Twice she had gotten away, yet, even twice through the window. It was also twice to get away from an explosion but the fact was lost on the men guilty of the deed, but not on her. She realized it, and wondered if the third time was really the charm._

 _The men were yelling at her to sign some sort of document, and soon the yells escalated to threats, and from threats to blows. She was like a mini lightweight sandbag that rolled with the hits, and was ignorant of all the hurt, injury, pain…_

 _At least, only physically._

 _Even as she was bludgeoned with fists and buffeted with assorted hands strikes, she grieved in the privacy of her mind and wished that they'd just hurry up and kill her to get it over with._

' _They need me to sign…something. They must want the ownership of the land from_ _ **me**_ _. I own the land. I inherited it, but I also inherited the debt. They can't seize the land fully until I sign, so I doomed to live a life under the heel of them, until I sign.'_

' _So why not sign? They'll kill me right after. I'll get to see my parents…'_

 _And one of the men went a tad too far with the pain infliction…all he really did was to exert a bit too much force necessary to make her experience horrible pain and remain conscious._

 **Flashback end**

"…And that's why you shouldn't try to train with Lee."

"He sounds like a fitness maniac." 'I bet if I make him train with the seal, it might mess him up and discourage him..' Naruto finally rolled off of his front and unto his back in the cool grass, watching Tenten out of the corner of his eyes as she nodded and went back to kunai throwing. "Wow, not a single miss. That's impressive."

"I'm the best there is at this! I bet I could teach you a thing or two about throwing!"

Naruto…somehow sensed some sort of disturbance. Glancing to his far left away from where he and Tenten were, he could have sworn he could see Hinata frown as she discretely observed them. A frown on her face was very unbecoming and wondered if all the strange behavior from Hinata over the years was finally coming to a head. The funny thing was, it seemed to happen when he was around Tenten or Haku. He had to put this fact on the backburner as his mind caught to what Tenten had ridiculed him for.

"I'll have you know that my aim is dead-on accurate. Your aim can't touch mine."

"Oh yeah? Well I know that I've the best aim as a genin. I'm probably on par with a jounin."

"And my aim is better than Kami's," he answered carelessly. Finally deciding that he needed to rest his body before it sublimed to mush, he, as best and stealthily as he could, lowered the seal to four. Of course, this wasn't 'normal' as in no restrictions, but it was to him. Besides, the respite he got from lowering the seal could compare to when he removed it completely what few times he did in Wave.

"Pah. Thinks he's such a hotshot when he can't even support his own body. Have you even been eating?"

"I gave up a lot," Naruto mumbled. "So that you could."

 **Flashback**

 _His home was fine. It had taken a proper month to get his home back up to proper conditions. He wondered if his departure from Wave was all that necessary in the first place. The nine and-a-half year old certainly didn't regret going to Wave-…he now had some family to call his. What he was pondering was how that he was finally getting some attention to get his home back up to snuff so he could live in his home without having to worry about the plumbing, the furnishing and things like that. While it was cheaply done, he could tell that the village was seeing some tough times._

 _He had seen it, read about it, heard about it and generally lived through it. The Sandaime still provided him with his allowance…the allowance money was increased by a decent margin and it served to benefit him when the price of living was increasing. While not terribly so, when other people's wages had frozen, his money had increased accordingly to keep up. He didn't know why but who was he to look a gift horse in the mouth?_

 _No one really took notice of him. Crime was visibly on the rise but he stayed out of trouble; his home had been raided far too many times and everyone knew it to be empty of all things valuable. They didn't know that he was finally bettering his own previous living standard and it…bothered him. He didn't miss being antagonized and riled; he could certainly do without that. What gnawed at him was seeing other people who were actually worse off than him. He was eating, they were unfed. He was drinking, they thirsted. He was safe, and they weren't._

 _For once, things were turning out well, although it meant the suffering of others._

 _No one would rob him, for they thought he had nothing._

 _No one really bothered him, they had their own problems._

 _No one stared at him…well, that could be because he was using a henge as a poor beggar. One of the many useful things he learned in the documentations, courtesy of I.U., whoever those initials belonged to. It was also the self-same person who had provided him with his tanto in the same seal. But the baton, however, he found one in the dumpster behind his house when he was six...he had never pegged it for a weapon at the time when he found it, having only used it for miscellaneous purposes around his home. He had lost that one a long time ago. What he couldn't understand, was how this so-called I.U. could have left a brand-new one in the seal for him._

 _Scary. But he was going to use it properly, should the need arise. Just a swing and not to miss._

 _And then at the same occurrence of the thought, he saw two men carrying a girl between them from a house, while four others walked just behind them. Naruto tried to ignore the happening, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the bloodied form of the girl and the men quarreling amongst themselves. He couldn't quite see their faces but they were in a hurry._

 _With every pinpoint sense of his mind screaming for him to walk away, to pretend he hadn't seen anything…every fiber of his being screamed even louder to do something. To do something…to aid…to_ _ **help**_ _._

 _He was walking towards the two men in his henge, they would surely meet as their paths would cross. Naruto was merely on his way to Ichiraku's and once there release his henge, but that was roughly two hundred meters away. What was about to happen now, was a meeting between him, and the six men plus the girl._

 _Ten feet…_

 _Eight feet…_

 _Six feet…_

 _Four feet…_

 _Three feet…_

 _And Naruto lost his nerve._

" _Good night, gentlemen."_

" _Get the fuck out of our way, you piece of shit!" The largest man pushed the old beggar (Naruto) out of his way. "Fuckin' stinkin' bastard came too close to touching me!" The men stomped past him and Naruto grew rapidly upset. Both for losing face, acting stupid and the fact that his psyche was close to breaking him apart in chastisement for not doing the right thing._

" _Who're you calling a piece of shit, you oxygen-stealing, coffin-dodging bastard!" Naruto yelled, the words shocking even himself. What surprised him even more was the next stream. "Your bitch mother fucks for bricks so she can build your tou-_ _ **CHAN**_ _a manwhore house!"_ _ **(2)**_

 _All of the men stopped and turned to Naruto, who seemed to be brimming with the emotions of the moment. He could feel the Kyuubi waking up in the seal and egging him on as well to do the right thing as soon as he caught up to speed from the boy's short-term memories._

" _ **That's it, brat! Teach those bastards a lesson. Kami, I wish I could take control…"**_

' _What do I do now?' Naruto asked the beast worriedly._

" _ **The best thing to do is to pick up that that kerchief on the ground next to you, release your henge into your younger form and wear it. Past experience tells me that it's best to do everything with your identity intact. And then try to kick some ass so you don't get killed."**_

 _Naruto barely had the time to register all of this when the men charged him with cutlasses, knives and axes to maim him. Snatching up the kerchief, he darted away to escape the males fury but he was grabbed by the clothing by the closest man and swung back closer to the others. His henge broke and he was revealed to be his nine year old self but luckily, his face was face down in the dirt. Well, it was fortunate that they didn't know who he was, but rather unlucky that he now knew what the soil tasted like._

" _Agh!" He spat to one side and slightly angling his face down while he tied the kerchief. He was promptly kicked in the temple with a thrusting kick that sent him tumbling away; he was seriously doubting the logic of his actions to put on a kerchief for a mask in the middle of conflict. If something like this ever reoccur, he'd better have it close by._

 _Wait…_ _ **reoccur**_ _?!_

" _Heh! It's just some kid playing ninja!" The largest man scoffed._

" _I don't care. I'm gonna cut his tongue out of his head!" The first offended fumed as he rushed over to stomp on the downed blond. Said boy barely had the present state of mind to roll out of the way and finally dart out of the killing zone of a swung cutlass that was aimed to decapitate. However, his dodges soon came to an abrupt end as six rather well-built men proved to be too much, especially as it counted to his inexperience. Getting badly struck with the broad side of an axe, he toppled like a shaky tower of uneven blocks and collapsed onto his front._

 _Blood ran from a wound just at his hairline close to his ear but it went ignored in favor of staring at the motionless girl who seemed to have come to and watched his failure to intervene in a good turn to aid her. He wheezed feebly as dust clouds rose from his impact and made its way into his lungs and watched as the men laughed at him…it was like the_ _ **cackling**_ _ **of**_ _ **despicable**_ _ **beasts**_ _that mocked all who heard it, namely him and the girl not five feet away from him._

' _Kyuubi, I need help!'_

 _The kitsune was thoughtful in his cage as he observed his container's predicament._ _ **"Hmm…I think this would put the number in the seventies…like 72."**_

' _Kyuubi!' He yelled mentally, begging for assistance._

" _ **I cannot aid in the manner I would prefer…I lack the proper medium necessary for the mutuality. However, there is another solution. Prepare yourself…"**_ _The demon fox warned, only seconds before Naruto's canines grew behind his makeshift mask, his whiskers became progressively more pronounced and his nails lengthened. With the visible transformation hidden by the night and incognito precautions, he felt his sustained wounds heal and an accompaniment of a boost of physical might._

 _The feral state boiled in him as he stood up before the confronters, surprising all who watched. Without a moment to spare, he reached down and grabbed his fallen baton and stared down all six of the men._

" _*Growl*"_

"…"

" _Graahhh!" Naruto roared as he took off towards the obvious leader._

" _Kill the brat-aaagghhh!" The leader hadn't even seen the boy move, much less had the reaction time necessary to dodge a blow from a baton that broke out six of his front teeth. The momentum from the blow knocked him backwards unto his back but he was immediately on his knees, retching the blood from his mouth as well as his broken teeth. The man cringed in horror as well as his cohorts as the boy gazed at them in like turn. In a fury unmatched, the boy dealt out brutish, blunt and bone-breaking brutality on the men that soon had their bodies in shambles._

…

…

…

 _Naruto fell down unto his knees next to the girl and looked her over, grasping what knowledge to hand with his ability of 'Understanding'. It wouldn't go far, but he could reason to hand that the girl was principal to the men, spying a rather important-looking sheet of paper that she clutched. Weariness caught up with him from his usage of the feral state and he sighed as the adrenaline and potency of the Kyuubi's influence left his system, leaving him feeling run-down. The fact of that was overlooked as he tried to think of his next move but kept getting thrown off by the girl's stare._

 _At first, he believed that he was the reason to be stared at, but when a house practically exploded to bits not too far behind him in a raging inferno, he made up his mind quickly and hefted her in a bridal carry to convey her to his house._

…

…

…

 _As soon as he rested her on his bed, he collapsed unto the ground from exhaustion. He could feel himself getting tempted to just take a five-ten minute power nap, but his being would have nothing of it. It felt as if he was being guided by another figure who wanted him to…do better, for lack of a better term to coin it as. While it may be existential of him to think like that, he decided that it was just his conscience. Once he accepted it as part of who he was, the feeling became more tolerable and he actually mustered the energy and willpower to stand again, a true example of tenacity._

 _The girl was bleeding all over, true, but what bothered him the most was how she seemed to look everwhere, but saw nothing. Not in the fashion of a blind person who could move their eyes and see nothing, but like how one could look at a math problem and fail to equate the solution. (_ _ **AN- Or like the many readers who read this paragraph but failed to notice that the word 'everywhere' was spelt incorrectly.)**_

" _She looks like she's in shock of something. I don't know what to do."_

" _ **Problem? 73. Get her cleaned up with a rag and some warm water and change her out of those bloodied clothes. I recommend a t-shirt and shorts. If you have any sort of antiseptics, use it."**_

" _I didn't ask for your advice," Naruto muttered under his breath. "But I appreciate it."_

 _After running the hot water, he fetched a rag he had never used and began to clean all of her broken-skin injuries with the warm water. She didn't even flinch as he did this and wondered if it even hurt at all. He wasn't sure if she was a special case when it came to pain tolerance, but he didn't dare try to test it._

 _While he knew of the female genitalia (he read his adoptive mother's books frequently in Wave), he only saw it as a implement for reproduction. He knew all about it worked but still had no passing knowledge why 'a man might want to get serious on a woman'). He had no qualms about bathing her completely and changing her and the job was easier since…well, since she was basically impersonating a sheet of paper._

 _Speaking of sheets of paper…_

 _After she had nodded off to sleep in his bed, he took the paper that she had gripped earlier and read through it. It was some sort of contract that indicated that she, 'Tenten Higurashi', was offering up total ownership of a rather decent cut of land. While it was 'hmm, okay' as in land, it was prime real estate on a corner in the middle of a four-way. The boon of having land like that would be hefty in times like these, and they needed her signature for it to go through. It was some sort of clause that needed her signature as her parents had mischievously used her name as a backing; to ensure that the land could not be sold or used in any way without her consent as well. The land was in the three persons' names, and her parents had already signed theirs to mortgage it. Since they were dead, she owned the land now._

 _Understanding could only go so far in analyzing the current problem. While it might explain her state, the document noted her parent's passing the very date that he left the village…she had been orphaned for nineteen months. She must've had caretakers, and they must have recently perished, judging from the home he had reasoned her to be occupying at her most recent affront._

" _Tenten, huh? That's your name?"_

 _The sleeping girl did not answer of course, but Naruto felt grateful for the company._

" _Oh boy. I guess I'm taking the couch. I wonder what my next move is?"_

 **And there you have it. An entirely plausible chapter. Hey! I blame my late start. Sure, you could argue that I could've taken my time but it was a pain in the ass to get this chapter typed to the plan!**

 **1- Anyone know the reference to this insult?**

 **2- This is one insult I didn't know what to do with. It was extremely OOC, but hey, it's insulting enough to make a saint try to knock your head sideways.**

 **Well, there ain't no lollicon here, people; it's all innocent. Now that we've gotten** _ **that**_ **out of the way, let me continue. Until the end of chapter 13…you know what, let the next chapters tell you. Some more plot holes were filled today, and others will continue to do so overtime. At least now we can pay more attention to why he has that damn baton, why he's got a bandanna mask, and this I.U. person…oh well.**

 **Also, it hurts me to say this…while I disapprove of the clan killings, especially of the civilians also, (I kept the civilians alive in the fic. Must be Call of Duty always lecturing me about 'Friendly Fire will not be tolerated' and junk.) I always found it strange that basically, the entire police force got murdered. Doesn't this basically tell every criminal, both serious and wannabe that it's time for some bedlam? I'm sure everyone was affected. Not enough to become a cesspool of crime waves, but enough for a small measure of chaos.**

 **As for the review done by the person called 'Aaeru'. Yeah. Pretty much everyone in the show had names that had literal meanings. For instance, you could say Haku's name. Is it really a guy's name? 'Haku Yuki' literally means 'White Snow'. I mean come on. Besides, the Japanese words for the names are easy to stick. In any case, it was fun in the arc I had for Kimyō Town and it kinda stung me a bit when no one tried to figure it out before the arc was over. But who's to say that I haven't kept with the habit?**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	34. Chapter 34

**Breaking Limits**

 **Breaking Limits**

 **I'm going to be frank, I've got a new caseload of work to do. Well, the days of thick schedules have caught up to me and I CANNOT promise regular updates as I always have; the streak is/will be lost. I don't want to sound like everyone else that say 'Well, I'll update soon' and they totally disappear. If you follow me, then you'll know that that I always update something or other fairly often. The thing is, I've got obligations to all stories and they will be finished, as will this one. If I ever have to take a hiatus, it will not last more than a month. Anything past that, assume the worst but pray for the best.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

 **34.**

Hinata felt put off as she watched the bun-haired girl chatter away with the object of her crush. She had a reason to, after all. They were going at it like they were old friends although every now and then, the girl speaking to him would visibly grimace as if she had recalled seeing something awful, or then smile before continue speaking.

'I think he called her...Tenten. What's her relationship with Naruto-kun?'

That was the only thing boiling at the fore of her mind and of course, it carried the most weight. And what was with the bun-haired girl's behaviour? How long had they known each other for? How could Naruto get along with her so well when he-?

These were other questions that lingered in the shadow of her most pressing query. But the last question...Hinata felt like she actually had some sort of competition and it was from this...girl!

She needed to do something. She needed to say something. She needed to get noticed. She needed-

"And then the whole bunch of tags blew up?" She heard Naruto ask his companion.

It was obvious even without the use of her byakugan that the weapon's user tried to suppress some sort of adverse reaction to what they were talking about. "Yeah."

"Serves him right. Decapitating people for the fun of it? That's sick. I know that one needs the head to collect bounties, but this guy just-"

"Naruto," Hinata overheard the girl speak in a pleading voice. "I don't wanna talk about it anymore."

"Alright. So you're still up for that weapons-throwing contest?"

Naruto sounded confident! Hinata started to feel proud of herself. Perhaps it was because Naruto had learned how to throw weapons properly as he had done over the course of his suspension, when she had been 'teaching him'. If he felt that he could go against someone she had heard state that she had the aim equivalent of a jounin, then Naruto was once again as brash as he used to be, or he actually had the talent to back it up.

She needed to see where this was going.

"Fine. I'll humble you so we can-"

"Name your distance, stakes and let's start," Naruto insisted. "We're still on mission, so we shouldn't waste time."

Tenten smirked to herself. "Indeed." He looked-

 _-at the girl and pondered whether or not he should tell the Hokage of her being here in his apartment. It had been only a day and a half since her arrival. Now at around mid-morning, he was wide-awake but she was fast asleep. This was rather troublesome. She hadn't left his bed once by her own prerogative; if he removed her, it was basically him lugging her weight by having one of her arms around his shoulders and help her to his table where he had to spoon-feed her, of all things. THEN, he had to bathe her._

 _If he hadn't grown bored and read his mother's books on child-raising in Wave on a rainy day, he would've been completely at a loss for what to do. But NOTHING in the book had prepared him for this. She was practically just like a big baby...she hadn't even said anything. She was just...there._

 _He hadn't left his apartment since her arrival. They had food, thankfully but as he was as a worry-wart for his well-being and now for the same for someone else, he knew that he'd need to get more sooner or later. He'd have to leave her, like some sort of mother-bird would do to her own chicks, retrieve food and bring it back for the young to feed. This wasn't getting to him. He was patient, currently, but he was not waiting to starve to death._

 _He needed advice._

' _Kyuubi?'_

" _ **Say no more. The number just upped to '74'. You're going to have to take care of her for quite a bit longer, but she can't go to the Hokage."**_

" _Why not?" The Uzumaki asked aloud._

" _ **For Kami's sakes, boy! How long have you been here before you realized that Konoha has gone to shit?! She's just another victim of harsh circumstances! She's just another 'unfortunate' case among so many-"**_ _The Kitsune started to roar, but fell quiet when he 'heard' himself._ _ **"I'm...sorry."**_

" _For what?" Naruto asked unsurely._

" _ **I started behaving like...forget it. The thing is, she's-"**_

" _I understood that part." He said aloud again. "But what do we do?"_

" _ **What CAN we do, is the question that can be asked. You've read the document. She's an orphan, not to mention has had a poor history with…'caretakers'? Point of the matter being, that if the old geezer Kage can't even find proper security for the girl, it means that the ninja force is spread too damn thin; their taking missions, and don't necessarily have the morals and qualms with ill-doing necessary to actually not to take part. I hate to say it, but the death of the Uchihas weren't such a good thing after all...well, not for the village as far as I care. Ain't no policing; Hashirama and Tobirama Senju must've seen some reason why a ninja village like this might want a police force. People are just naturally violent, and seek to better themselves at the expense of others."**_

" _..." Naruto heard all of the Beast's misgivings and frowned. "I barely pulled through that last scrape, but at least I had it in me to want to help, although not originally."_

" _ **Boy, you're just a kid. Not everything's just going to be peachy,"**_ _The Kyuubi ranted._ _ **"You know this better than most people, in fact. You've had it hard, no one feeding you, no one taking care of you like they should. If you really want to help the girl, let her stay here. No one really pays you mind anymore; when times are good, they try to rid themselves of their one blemish, which is you. Now that they've got their own problems to worry about, you're going to be left alone. You should be grateful, 'cause in another alternate, they could decide that you're cursing the village and decide to off you."**_

" _I gain by their losses," Naruto whispered. "But I don't want that!"_

" _ **Yeah, and I wish that I could exist as my own person without being 'trapped' in a seal. You're lucky I don't have anywhere I need to be before your eventual expiration."**_

 _Naruto grinned to himself. "Again with the dark humor. But if times are hard, then how come my allowance stayed the same? The youki clone that replaced me here didn't even eat; he saved that money. Even now, I'm getting the same allowance I always have. It's compounded, basically."_

 _Privy to his own thoughts, the Kyuubi was silent._ _ **'That Sandaime must be trickling his allowance from his inheritance, most likely. It's not going to put a dent in it at this rate, but I suppose it's for the best. Perhaps this way, Naruto'll learn to appreciate what little he has, but the allowance could always be a bit more. His money is streamed from a large money-pool. Everyone else has to scrape from...however, wherever and whatever they sell or do.' "Are you ungrateful?"**_

" _No."_

" _ **Good."**_

" _But seriously, what do we do about Tenten-"_

" _Are you a Fox demon?" Naruto heard a new voice ask. Rigidly, he turned to face the girl that was lying on the bed, her eyes open and staring at him. However, he didn't read into that as much as the next question, though. "Who are you talking to?"_

 _That one felt easy to lie to. "I was talking to myself." He answered easily._

" _Liar." She said matter-of-factly._

 _That simple accusation threw him off badly; he didn't know why though. Before he could muster a comeback, she had lapsed off again, eyes closed. The event was so sudden and brief that Naruto entertained the idea that he was daydreaming for a bit until the Kyuubi yelled at him for talking out loud._

" _Bad habit," Naruto chuckled nervously._

" _ **You'd better break it, or-…*Growl* Fuck! What the hell, boy?! Didn't you remember to NOT speak aloud?!"**_

' _Geez, it's just a habit. Anyway, it looks like she was half-asleep. Maybe later I can convince her that she was dreaming if she remembers this and tries to push it.'_

 _He felt badly disturbed again and wondered why his being felt as if it was being abraded by the act of thoughts of lying. This might become a problem later. 'Let's look past that. If anything, other people refuse to try and help other people, then I guess that I'll have to do something.'_

" _ **Don't try to get smart,"**_ _The Fox chastised._ _ **"The people two nights ago nearly killed you. What if I couldn't help with the feral boost? If not for that small burst, you could and would have perished."**_

" _I can learn. I'll...improve. I'll better myself. I can train."_

" _ **You're speaking out loud again."**_

' _Gomen.' The Uzumaki apologised mentally. As he did so, he eyed the soiled black kerchief that he had brought home with him. Smiling as an idea came to him, he decided to go out on an errand after all. But first, he needed to make a list._

 _Finding a pencil and a letter-sized sheet of paper, he wrote:_

 _-Buy food to last a month._

 _-Buy clothing to last._

 _-Buy a (shabby) paintbrush._

 _-Buy (red and black) paint._

 _-Buy ninja tools._

 _-Find the necklace!_

 _*Wish for better, and act to attain it._ _Morals shall not perish, here...Idealism is not a dying trait, least of all within me._

 _With the jottings completed, Naruto decided to make a run to the store-...he needed to hurry back before Tenten woke up. He had-_

-no idea how everyone had gathered around the two of them. It's as if somewhere, somehow, someone did something that they wouldn't normally do… and that caused everyone to group around Naruto and Tenten in a half-circle. In fact, he was sure that people who were previously still in their rooms had assembled outside where they were and suddenly...everyone was competing. This was probably the fault of Naruto and Tenten practically 'letting the other know who was better at throwing weapons' very loudly.

Very soon, that escalated to those who believed that they could beat Naruto at weapons throwing, namely and expected Kiba, a Sasuke who was dared to by Kiba himself when he thought he was above it at first, Hinata who actually decided to see if she could throw better than Tenten (for reasons known only to her), Sakura who was competing against Ino in a fight-of-sorts. Everyone else either 'had something better to do', (Neji, Shino) didn't feel like chucking around sharp objects (Shikamaru), or found something else to occupy their time (Chouji discovered that he had a spare bag of chips on him.)

Asuma sighed. "We need to hurry this along." 'Soon, someone will probably come running up to tell us that another bloody mess was found.' Looking towards the sunrise, he couldn't help but cocking an eyebrow up at the symbolism of new beginnings. The Sarutobi knew that was nigh impossible for a cesspool like Riyusu Town, but he could always hope...couldn't he?

The place was practically evil…

"If you're ready to throw, all those who are going to, it's obvious who's taking part, but first, let me just say that this is all about people who have incredible accuracy. We'll start. Last names, of course."

All those who weren't taking part was definitely watching as the competitors sauntered up to the gouged line in their own unique gaits but it could be said that the most confident looking ones were...well actually, they all looked pretty damn confident, even Hinata. This threw almost all of the non-Team 8 members for a loop as they had known the girl to be a more withdrawn type.-...a rather introverted wallflower to be precise.

…

…

…

"Well, that's it. Those who qualified were Tenten, Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata and Kiba, in that order," Asuma began as he looked over the kunai'd target. "Kiba and Hinata barely kept up with the first three, though. Since the first three are all throwing perfectly, you five will have to find more challenging ways to throw and still have high accuracy."

"Whoa, whoa, since when could Naruto throw better than me?" Kiba fumed as he recalled how the others save for he and Hinata had thrown perfect tens. "I tell you, the wind was blowing really weird and-"

"Get over it, Kiba," Asuma chastised. "You'll either need to practice more or quit acting like a sore loser." The man as well as the others who 'knew Naruto well' began to seriously wonder how the hell the guy had managed to throw a kunai and not miss the whole target, much less strike a perfect ten. It was bizarre. While Hinata could confess that she thought she had helped throw better, she couldn't recall him surpassing her. She had no idea whether to feel proud of his progress or to feel jealous that his accuracy was perfect, whereas she had thrown an 8. If it were jealousy, it'd only add to the one growing in parallel to Tenten's camaraderie with her crush. To be frank, they only met the day before...hadn't they? Now they were like-

"Ninja-sama! Ninja-sama!"

Asuma finally felt some relief. At long last. He had expected some bad news but strangely, its awaited arrival brought some respite from the stress of waiting. He turned bodily to face an inbound running messenger. When the others registered the newcomer's presence, they all turned to face the man as he came to a stop in front of Gai and Asuma, piss-tired and panting. "Ninja-sama!" The man wheezed.

"Take your time," the Sarutobi urged. "I already know why you're here. Just nod or shake your head to tell me if it's someone important."

The man half-sagged by bracing himself on his slightly-bent knees. At first, he looked like he was about to nod to say if the person was important, but he hesitated.

"Well, messenger-san?" Asuma asked. "Is the person of a high status?"

The exhausted man neglected to answer. Instead, he waited out a half-minute to catch his breath a bit before he grunted that 'there were only bloodstains.'

Asuma sighed deeply. "Alright. When you're done catching your breath, you can help us by leading the way." When Naruto heard this, he looked down; memories would always be at the center and foremost of his brain. He had always had them, but he wondered how he would have turned out if he hadn't done all the things he had. The village would be worse off, that he knew, but what of he? Just some orphan with the Kyuubi sealed in him, with no recognition besides. He didn't strive for glory, but it came off naturally, like-

 _-pulling his recently painted mask off as soon as he entered. "It won't be too long. I've even stopped by at the site," he mumbled in no small amount of elation. "And all this will soon be over."_

" _ **Time to feed the girl,"**_ _the Kyuubi grumbled._ _ **"Oh joy..."**_

" _Why don't you like her? She's fine."_

" _ **I never said I didn't like her. Besides, she's a rag-tag girl you practically took up off of the streets and allowed her to sleep in your bed. The way she's out of it, I doubt she even knows she's even in a bed. This'd better work."**_

" _It'll work. They'll build the orphanage. Maybe that soup kitchen will even be finished first."_

 _The demon Kitsune could merely exhale noisily._ _ **"And this will solve the problems, you believe? Like some high-hoping vigilante? Knocking out criminals, even? They aren't even being arrested. They just get knocked out and wake up hours later to find that they've been looted, without even seeing who did it? This will solve NOTHING!"**_ _He roared, badly unsettling his container._ _ **"And you have faith in a fuckin' soup kitchen and an orphanage?!"**_

" _At least I have faith," Naruto replied in a half-hurt, chastising tone. "Don't you believe in anything?"_

" _ **I believe in results."**_

" _You have to have to invest belief in something to get results," he replied sagistically. This tone pacified the Fox, and he sat back on his great haunches. He decided to remain quiet and try to ruminate on all of the recent developments that had occurred. Naruto was growing up, and he couldn't be any prouder._

" _ **Fine. Let's at least see if the girl robbed you blind and made off with all you've got."**_

" _She's not like that," the Uzumaki argued. "But it's late. She's probably asleep."_

" _ **As usual. She stares, eats, sleeps and shits. You're going to have to stop wasting your money buying the Kami-forsaken adult diapers. It's embarrassing."**_

" _I'm not doing this because I want to," Naruto said seriously as he walked purposefully into the kitchen to get a bit to eat. "I'm doing this because I_ _ **have**_ _to. If I did things mainly on my own desires, I doubt anything would get done in a village like this. And if I don't do something...who will?"_

 _Who indeed?_

 _He snapped on the kitchen lights at the entrance and was scared out of his wits when he saw Tenten sitting at the table, eating._

 _Eating with a tall male companion dressed in a black trench-coat, overlaying hood that shadowed his face, well and truly. Immediately, Naruto had his baton out but it was in the man's hand as soon as he did. Naruto wondered if the baton had somehow teleported to the man's hand, but then a sudden and savage wind swept through the kitchen, making the boy realize that it was speed. "Shit!"_

" _Language," the strange person scolded in a fairly hexafluoride bass tone. "Now sit down."_

" _Like hell I will! Who are you?!" Naruto yelled._

" _Be quiet, or you'll wake the neighbours." As soon as the man spoke, Naruto mentally called on the feral state to challenge the man but found himself seated beside a still eating Tenten. The wind from earlier travelled on through again and swept their hair about as did everything else, but Naruto ignored that in favour of keeping his eyes glued on the intruder. He could only stare- he had lost his weapon, was_ _ **extremely**_ _outclassed and he couldn't afford to have a fight break out with Tenten who was still eating. That in particular bothered him. One, she was moving independently, yet still possessing the same catatonia vibe. Second, she was eating with the intruder even before he (Naruto) had arrived. EVERYTHING was wrong with that._

 _And then the man himself._

' _Kyuubi? Is that him?' He softly called mentally._

 _The Beast in the seal stared through his containers eyes. Ever so slowly, it narrowed into a slanted glare that boiled with brimstone._ _ **"It's him."**_

 _The nine-year old glowered in his own fashion at the man who seemed fairly unperturbed. 'He looks just like-'_

" _ **I know,"**_ _Kyuubi intercrossed._ _ **"But there's no doubt about it. It's him. We should run away. We can't fight him, especially not without the n-"**_

" _I feel like I'm not being included in your conversation," the intruder commented coolly. "Are you trying to think of your options? I'll give you a minute to decide."_

 _The boy's eyes widened in shock, before trying to collect himself. 'Oh damn. We can't fight him. We can't fight, even if we-"_

" _ **Can't run away either. The man's practically teleporting with that speed of his,"**_ _his inner demon fretted._ _ **"But he has to die. But not here. We're incapable. We have to at least make some noise to attract help."**_

" _Heh heh," Naruto chuckled outwardly, making the man lift an eyebrow-...not that he (Naruto) could tell. "Help? We are the help, Kyuubi. No one would come. Besides, who'd want to come help_ _ **me**_ _? Besides, who could fight him?"_

" _The Yondaime could, if he were still around, that is," the man remarked. "But I didn't come here to fight. I could cut off all of my limbs and still kill you. It wouldn't be fair."_

" _Feel free to handicap yourself," Naruto replied in an easy tone. "Now who are you, and what do you want?"_

" _Who I...am? I don't know." The man leaned back in his seat, demonstrating how relaxed he was. "I was hoping that the Kyuubi knew."_

" _ **I don't."**_ _The Kitsune defended._ _ **"I admit, he gives off a familiar vibe from over the years, and I should know him through my previous container."**_

" _He doesn't know you personally," Naruto spoke aloud as he_ _glared at the black-clothed stranger. 'So he's the one you want dead, huh?'_

" _ **Hai. It's him. He wants-"**_

 _Naruto was blasted backwards out of his chair, so much so that he slammed against the far wall away; the offender being that of pure Killing Intent. "I said speak aloud, damn it!"_

 _The young boy slid down the wall, feeling the aches and pains of his thumping. The wall was spider-web cracked behind him, showing emphasis of how badly he had been thrown against it. He stifled all sounds of misery and without thinking, limped his way to Tenten's side, ready to defend her if necessary. But to his surprise, the man only laughed._

" _You have nothing to worry about. As of now, she's only under a genjutsu; I couldn't be bothered with feeding her, so I made her feed herself. Although currently, I'm incorporating a sealed ability on her. I can tell she's got some sort of heightened cognition, although it's probably because she's maturing faster to cope with her tragic past."_

" _What kind of seal, you bastard?!" Naruto snarled. "What did you do to her?!"_

" _Nothing much, really," the man answered. "I stopped by and saw her. I could tell that she possessed good cognition, although it was on and off. What I did served no real purpose or end-gain; the seal I placed was done to see if I could mend her condition, to see if I could 'fix' her. We'll just wait and see. Otherwise, forget about her. How've you been?"_

"… _I'm gonna kill you," Naruto answered seriously. "I_ _ **mean**_ _it."_

 _The man laughed to himself and stood up, his tall and imposing figure made his shadow cast over the much shorter Uzumaki. "I should think not, and at least not at present. You'd need all eight to beat me, not to mention mastery of the reason why the eight were created in the first place." The man chuckled wryly, as if recalling a hilarious memory. "Ah yes. The reason they were created. It's so powerful, especially with the necessary augments that the eight provide." The man turned his back and strode off to the sink, where he actually began to wash the dishes there. "My rival," the man began. "A real do-gooder. He was a genius, and yet he couldn't master the move without creating the eight. I also sought after it, but unfortunately, he died with the knowledge of the eight he had created. A secret recipe, you might call it."_

" _Why are you telling me this?" Naruto asked grimly as he waved a hand in front of Tenten's face but she failed to respond._

" _I'm sure that you have 'Understanding'. As a matter of fact, how many arrows are on your forehead?" The man spoke slowly as his back was still turned._

" _Two," the boy answered hesitantly._

 _The man finished his task before drying the last plate and placing it where it was to go. He then turned and looked down on him. "Development seems faster than I predicted. However, I hope the next time I ask you, you'll tell me like you did just now. Otherwise…" He clasped his hand in a snake handseal and reopened them to reveal a brilliant red orb. "I might have had to use other painful…means."_

"…" _Naruto was silent._

" _Silence means approval." The stranger wiped off his wet hands on the sides of his pants, a true testament that he was a simple person. "Sorry about the mess. Hopefully by the time we fight, I'll be even swifter so I'll be able to move so quickly I won't even create a displacement of following wind. And by then…" The orb in his hand changed to that of a grapefruit sized sphere of swirling chakra, which then changed properties to look like each of the five major elements in turn. "In any case, go to bed. I'll finish cleaning up. Just because we're enemies doesn't mean we can't have a truce, or even a period of ceasefire. But if you want to, you can help. Many hands make light work. That's a lesson you might want to take to heart." He strode to the corner and took up the broom and eyed it. "You'd better take care of the girl."_

 _The Uzumaki stared at the man and wordlessly started putting the things back in their places. The man didn't pay him much mind, but he spoke to him barely audibly._

" _Me? For so long, I've been nothing but a man of_ i _ntention."_

 _The boy heard but didn't really listen as he-_

-was playfully jabbed in the side, bringing him back to the world of the fully conscious. A glance to his right made him catch Tenten's worried look. Nothing he could and would say wouldn't change her outlook of him currently, and so he neglected to try.

"Naruto? Are you alright?"

"Would you believe a 'yes'?" He pointed out.

"Yes…if you tried hard enough to convince me." With that she returned to facing ahead like everyone else. While she did so, Naruto took the time to think over the ill vibes that were permeating the group like a horrid smog. They were to arrive shortly as the messenger stated, and knew that he needed to pull himself together. That went for naught as the memories that were always there rose to the surface again, his eyes seeing two different visions of the same time…one of the present and one of the past, in which-

 _-he had done a lot, but nothing could ever compare to the sight of the orphanage. It was grandly advertised by flyers and word of mouth. There was no way that he himself hadn't known of its existence, even if these adverts hadn't gotten to him. That would be impossible._

 _He raised the hood of his clothing over his head. "Well, the Sarutobi clan really did it up. I heard the spared no expense. They'll be catering to a maximum of fifty." Gazing at the building longingly, he whispered to himself, "I wonder if there's room enough for me…"_

" _ **Of course there is,"**_ _Kyuubi retorted._ _ **"Besides, even if it's first come, first served, you're one of the first to know that it was being built. Even that bastard told you. You'd better not get comfy around him. That motherfucking-"**_

" _You still haven't told me what he's done," Naruto asked. "You insist on me to kill him, and told me that he's done numerous wrongs."_

" _ **He's nothing if he's not**_ **i** _ **ntention. But we all know where that leads. In fact, I could guess that it's his fault that I'm in you in the first place." 'And if you were to dig deeper, why it's better that I'm in you to begin with…'**_

" _Wasn't the Yondaime responsible?" The almost ten-year-old asked in a confused tone. Hearing movement behind him, he turned to face a probably newcomer. "What aren't you telling me?"_

" _ **Just drop it."**_

 _Naruto listened carefully and soon, a figure of a man approached the tree from behind and leapt up into the branches alongside him. "Hey. It's just you and Kyuubi talking, huh?"_

" _Yeah. What do you want? Aren't you supposed to be going inside?" The boy asked gruffly._

 _The man with his hood and mask on chuckled. "Of course. But you're just watching the orphanage. Don't you want to join? What about Tenten? Don't you want her there-"_

" _Of course I do!" Naruto shot back. "Of course I want to…I want both of us to be there…"_

" _Oh…" Was all the man would say. After a while, at least. "Then what's keeping you? It's rather hard watching children coming in and you're not among them. If you don't, then what is the use? All of this, just some passing fancy-"_

" _Don't." The Uzumaki warned. "I want to. But things keep coming up-"_

" _People to help? Save?" The man nearly spat. "What's the good if you don't help yourself? If you and Tenten and a nameless person got poisoned with two cures between you, who would get a cure and who doesn't? Hmm?"_

" _Is this a trick question?" Naruto answered. "Tenten and the other person."_

" _You would die?" The man asked._

" _Nope!" Naruto grinned, although it wasn't visible due to the hood. "Kyuubi would negate the poison."_

 _The man sighed. "I don't know how I, of all people, forgot that Kyuubi…*sigh*" They both settled into the branches more comfortably while looking at the orphanage. Even now, they could see numerous children filing inside after a long day of play. The weekend was coming to a break, and tomorrow would be the start of a new workweek. The tenth of the month._

 _The month of October._

" _Naruto…"_

" _What is it?"_

" _Today, I counted forty-eight children in membership. It took a measly three days for the place to fill, and there's room for only two more. I can't stall any longer, so you need to make up your mind."_

 _The Uzumaki looked at the ground…thinking…thinking…thinking…_

"…"

" _Tomorrow's my birthday. I can't afford to venture out tomorrow. I could die…"_

"…"

" _Only two more places in the orphanage. A safe haven. I've run out of cash, and the money that my clone had saved has been exhausted-...taking care of Tenten had been really financially stressing. But the village has started to prosper again. Crime has been drastically lowered-"_

" _Thanks in no small part to you," The man replied._

" _The orphanage that houses the children and the soup kitchen that caters to the hungry. But I'm once again between a rock and a hard place."_

" _This is what happens when you put others ahead of yourself," the man pontificated. Naruto shot him a glare before calming down when he realized that the other was right._

" _That's true. But I don't regret any of it."_

" _What'll you do?" The man asked as he strode off to the orphanage, his appearance changing as he did._

"… _Wait for us. We'll be there. We'll be-"_

"-There!" The messenger yelled, startling Naruto back to present-day. Looking up, he saw that the whole group was coming upon a warehouse-like building that resided in a clearing. A cry rose up among the group when they eyed the whole structure. It was practically destroyed, had it not been for the general frame keeping the ramshackle upright. The areas not marred by demolition showed that the factory was rather built like a barn but the massive holes there revealed that no animal had ever resided inside.

"Whoa…" Ino gawked. "What happened here?"

"I guess that's what we're here to find out," Shikamaru grumbled as he regarded the warehouse. Others had more-or-less the same response and cries as they descended from the trees. Gai let the messenger off of his back and the man ran to the building and then around it. The others followed after him in like fashion, but it was at the back where they found that other men had gathered; one or two looked important and the four others looked like the law.

"No Shōmō-sama, but we should allow the ninjas to do their work. Look, they've even arrived," one of the apparent law-men remarked to another in fine robes as he pointed to the inbound squads.

"You're just saying that to please Risaikuru-sama," the apparent aristocrat said shortly to the lawman. "Because he's the one paying them to investigate. Look, the one who failed from so many years ago has returned with this bunch of children."

"Children?!" Kiba growled out. Before he could continue on that train, he was suppressed by a few other closest to him while Asuma sighed before heartily greeting the men.

"Good morning, all. Risaikuru-sama, Shōmō-sama." He bowed his head at the shoulders and every one of the ninjas followed his example, although Kiba did so far more reluctantly than the others. "I hope you've been well." Asuma glanced into the warehouse and grimaced. "Well, at least better than whoever's the reason we were summoned here."

"It's good to see you, Asuma-san," the other one with a mop of grey hair answered. "It's been a while since I saw you last. How've you been?"

"Fine, mayor-sama," the Sarutobi answered. "In any case, who was it this time?"

"'Or rather _what_ did this'?" Shino volunteered. "This looks like this was done by no mere man." The others silently agreed with him as most continued to try to peer inside, but the inside was darker than the outside, especially since the sun was in their eyes.

"We don't know. Not even the lone survivor can even tell us. He's a mess," a lawman stated. "Look, I'm going to be frank. I'm getting nauseous just listening to the flies buzzing around in there, so I'm just going to head on over to the tent that's set up."

"Hold up, hold up," Asuma interjected. "A survivor? That's new."

"I know the man," the mayor whispered. "I hope you'll be able to help him, as well as find the culprits and bring them to justice."

"We will!" Gai half-yelled the promise. However, all eyes turned to the sounds of shuffling that increased in volume as it inched to the group from the shadows of the carcass of a building. Soon, the person was seen as they emerged from the darkness and slightly scared/startled/unnerved the people seeing him for the first time. They were even more disturbed when they heard him speak.

"…That won't be-"

" _-Necessary," Naruto told his jailed demon. "We can make it to the orphanage easily without it."_

" _ **Are you sure?"**_ _The Kyuubi asked._

" _Knowing you, you probably just want to increase the favors-number."_

" _ **This is serious, Naruto. You're already taking a risk just be stepping outside-"**_

" _And I'll be taking an even bigger one by using the feral state. It'll just make me a huge alarm going off, 'no, oh no, the Kyuubi is influencing the boy'. That kinda shit," Naruto grunted as he packed the bags as best he could. He packed all the clothes he owned into a seal, but he did up all of hers into a backpack. At least he didn't have to change her one last time. The last time was a month ago when she started doing her necessities by herself, although she was still quite a bit out of it._

" _I'm going out normal. The usage of youki a week ago has everyone suspecting foul play. The creation of Ma-"_

" _ **Shh…Damn it, you need to talk mentally, you idiot! The girl could hear you!"**_

"' _Ma' what?" A new voice asked. Naruto turned and face-palmed when he saw Tenten standing there. She had a bad habit of temporarily rising out of catatonia in the most opportune of moments. It was a good thing that Kyuubi had stopped him. What she could have heard would've done more harm than good._

" _Nothing you need to worry about," Naruto answered truthfully. "Are you feeling okay?"_

 _She didn't answer. She just stood there, and it would be a few minutes later that Naruto would discover that she had had another relapse._

…

" _Geez, we've gotta get over there. Only two openings are available." He sealed her backpack into another seal and frowned. "Well, at least that 'frees up' my arms so I can carry her. But how?"_

" _ **Piggyback. And I'll have you know that that's now number eighty."**_

" _Aw, damnit," Naruto muttered. "I didn't ask you. That's like cheating. Can't I bounce ideas off of myself? He positioned himself against the standing girl and reached backwards to pull on her arms to let her fall unto his angled back. After a few more minutes of experimentation, he had her upper body lashed to his own for precautionary measures, and after a few moments of testing his arm strength and potential tenacity, he had her in a secure piggyback and his strength wasn't waning. Good._

" _Alright. Let's go," The Uzumaki mumbled as he walked through the door. He didn't even bother closing the door behind him-…he wouldn't be returning anyway, and he had all that he needed._

 _He raced along the floor of his apartment and went downstairs as quickly and safely as possible; the girl was barely jostled on his back, his movements were that smooth and fluid._

 _As he yanked the door open so that he could exit, he was greeted by a mob outside who was about to do the same so that they could enter; he had been sooner by a mere half-second. As he held the door open, he stared at the crowd of villagers outside, some drunk and some sober, some livid and some calm…_

… _But all of them were armed. They were heavily armed with their rage, kitchen utensils, gardening tools and the like._

 _Naruto stared for a mere second longer and hesitated for the blink of an eyelash. He was immediately running the way he came back up the stairs, the yelling mobbers hot in pursuit. They stormed through the apartment building after him but he was far more agile and speedy, fleeing up the stairs and even past the floor he resided on. Some of them stopped by there; he could tell by the sounds of violence in its general direction that they were trashing it. At least he wouldn't have to worry about them burning it; other people lived in this building and while they had no care for him, a fire would cause collateral damage to their homes as well._

 _At least, he hoped that his logic was…well, logical._

 _He bounded up the stairs in multiple but as much as he would have liked to run with his arms flailing to gather and keep momentum, he had to keep his human cargo supported by heaving her up from under her thighs. She had yet to react to this in some way, and this slightly worried him._

" _Feh, he didn't fix her catatonia. She's acting the same way she always has…"_

 _He ran out of stairs soon, and he was on the roof. Behind him, he could hear the mobbers coming up the stairs still, and without preamble, the boy sprinted off of the apartment building and leapt off at the edge unto a neighboring one of a slightly lesser height. Soon, he was roof hopping with his female backpack; he had a long ways to go, for the orphanage was on the other side of the village._

 _It was in the early evening when they started out, but it was at a probable halfway point when he felt his passenger shift. He tensed himself, but soon he felt his upper back become drenched a bit; she was crying._

" _Tenten?" He called softly as he traversed. "What's wrong?"_

 _She didn't answer for a full minute but when she did, she started to monologue. There was nothing but heartfelt emotion in it and the boy listened to every word. And how could he not? Every word streamed right into his ear, largely due to her proximity and head's location._

" _Naruto…when I first met you, I saw someone who needed just a bit of help to get their hand into a bag-strap. It looked kinda pathetic," she made a single chuckle at this before she moved on. "And I never quite understood why my mother mistreated you either, but I mostly helped out of politeness. Later that night, I heard my tou-san say that it was bad luck to mistreat foxes, and it was good luck to help them. But my mother just insisted you were a demon." She sniffled now; no doubt she was now entering some emotional waters. "It kinda proved true, 'cause my parents got murdered and l lived. In fact, even my so called 'replacement' parents got killed. But I lived, and it was easy to believe that it was your fault."_

 _Naruto said nothing, but he continued to listen as he travelled the roofs._

" _And I just had the fortune of helping a fox demon. But three months ago, I saw you try to fight for me after the men tried to carry me off. It made a whole lot of difference to me, and it seriously made me think that you were an actual demon. I could see that you had become as if you were possessed. Even your eyes changed…they looked demonic."_

 _By now, even Kyuubi was listening to what the girl was saying._

" _And you brought me home. I was trapped in my own mind. All I could do was break free of my mental trap every now and again, but I could hear anything and everything said around me, as well as see it, if my head was angled just right at the time." She took in a deep breath and sighed. "I'm a mess. I don't know how you've been able to put up with me for three whole months. I've been so much of a hindrance, a dead weight…I was just some big baby who couldn't even lift a spoon to her face. But you talked. You talked, and talked and talked."_

" _ **Fuck,"**_ _was all the jailed Biju would say before settling down on his haunches._ _ **"Time for more shit on our plates. Damn, nothing good has happened on this day of the year for how long? Ten YEARS!"**_

" _I caught on to the fact pretty easily that the Kyuubi's sealed inside you," she began again. "And you two were always talking, even if I only heard your side of these supposed conversations. Day in, day out. It made me feel kinda good, knowing that I wasn't all alone. Like white noise. It made me feel like it was an effort on your part to try and make me used to the idea of living with a person, who was actually the container for the Nine-Tails. In fact, I was scared as hell. Not only was my caretaker best friends with a demon that razed the village, he could also be mental. And who was I to judge, huh? I wouldn't have been any better. Maybe I'm crazy myself."_

 _Naruto grimaced._

" _But I soon realized that I had nothing to worry about. He's the best person I've ever made the mistake of bumping into. I couldn't have run into someone better. And then after that, you were starting to go out in the evenings, and coming back late at nights, almost at daybreak, even. Sometimes when you were sleeping, I used to go and just look at the mask you neglected to take off when you fell asleep on the couch for hours. It used to scare me, but now it makes me feel…safe. It's because I realized that you were doing the same thing for other people…the same thing you did for me. You were fighting all the bad people so the weaker people didn't have to. I…I admired that."_

 _By now, his grimace had turned into a smile as he continued to run along the rooftops. All of the problems they were in didn't matter as he felt a better drive to get to the orphanage._

 _Then he felt something new._

 _She was pressing into his back and shimmied up a little before pressing her lips against the back of his neck. He blushed heavily and nearly lost his agility to fall off of the ledged roof he was running on, but fortune remained on his side-…so had he the current capability to remain on the roof._

" _Thank you, Naruto-kun."_

…

…

…

 _His strength was almost all gone by the time he landed in front of the orphanage. Tired and feeling aches on his back where he shouldn't, the ten year-old sagged under the weight of the eleven year old. As soon as he made it inside the building, the orphanage owner saw the boy enter his station and immediately helped the girl off of his back by cutting off the belt with a penknife. "So the two of you made it, huh?"_

" _Yeah," Naruto gasped for breath as he finally in-took enough oxygen as a proper rebate. "We made it. Sign us up-"_

 _The door behind them creaked open and a boy hobbled inside pathetically on two makeshift crutches. "Mr. Orphanage-man! Mr. Orphanage-man! I want to register!" The emaciated boy cried. In his weak shuffling, he perturbed his proper motions and fell flat unto his face. His lame leg had given up on him and he crawled up to the front desk where the three were. "Please! I want to register!"_

" _I'm sorry," Masato apologized. "We have no more room. These two will occupy the last two places."_

" _No more room?" The boy looked as if he wanted to cry. "Kuso! The whole world is against me!"_

 _Naruto tore his eyes away from the boy as wailed. He took up the pen and slowly wrote in Tenten's full name with his best penmanship. With that done, he was about to write his own name, but the little boy's crying pulled on his heart strings-…his heart ached, and ached, and ached._

" _Go on," Masato encouraged the Uzumaki as he supported Tenten to keep her upright. "Just write your name."_

"…" _Naruto's hand trembled as his mind waged war with itself. It felt like he was like that for hours, but in truth, he had only been like that for a few minutes. In his stress, a sweat-drop trickled from his brow and mingled with a tear that dripped unto the ground. Soon, he began to laugh to himself._

" _I'm sorry…all of a sudden, I just forgot my own name." The blond's laughter increased in volume and became more and more heartily done. "I can't join."_

 _By now, the crying lame boy looked up, trying to make sense of it all. He hadn't much time to mull over it when he was approached by the now-smiling boy with the book in one hand and the pen in the other. "Hey."_

" _Hey…?" The lamed boy responded, wondering what was going to happen._

" _What's your name?"_

" _My name?" The boy parroted dumbly. "It's Asami."_

 _Naruto took the time to write the name in carefully. "Any last names?"_

" _I don't know it, if I have one at all." The now-named Asami answered with happiness swelling within him._

 _Masato strode from around the desk and retrieved the book and the pen. After the deed was done, he turned to Naruto, giving him an understanding look. "I'm sorry young man, we've reached capacity."_

 _Tears began running freshly down the Uzumaki's cheeks. "I know. I should go. It's my birthday, and I don't want anyone to come find me and attempt to burn this place down or somethin'."_

 _The selfless act was not lost on all those who were present, but shockingly, it was Tenten who was most affected, although she remained unchanged on the outside. Instead, the only thing that moved was her chocolate eyes when they followed her former caretaker out the door as he walked out of her life, hopefully providing her with a better one._

…

…

…

 _The Uzumaki didn't know how, but he felt happy, lonely, and miserable and tired all at the same time. He could sense that all of who he were was completely run-down. He was always busy; He was always helping someone, he reasoned, and was badly fatigued. But no matter what excuse he had, none would justify how, when, why, where or even change the fact that he had blundered into a mob of frenzied villagers comprised of civilians and ninjas alike. They were cruel, sadistic and-_

"-knew no mercy," the man explained with a dry heave. All of those present regarded the traumatized man with pity and horror. It was obvious in the faces and the body language, save for a few like the jounins and the stoic who could suppress such telltale signs well. However, most of that changed when the bloodied man looked up and shocked all with his next words:

"But I'm glad they did what they did."

After that, it took a few minutes to re-establish order as everyone was trying to make themselves heard, excepting five people, namely the Mayor, Shikamaru, Shino, Neji and Naruto. Each had their own reasons for not speaking; one was doing so because he didn't have anything to say, one didn't feel like contributing, one was thinking about what he had heard, the fourth had a rather aloof personality whose ego kept him from speaking often and the last had invariably gotten stuck in the pit trap of memories; it was his tenth birthday that was always the worst.

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata whispered to herself, noting the blond Uzumaki's behavior. "What's wrong?"

At long last, a lawman whistled shrilly for quiet. "Alright, that's enough! Let the mayor speak! You've had your turns! Mayor Risaikuru-sama? What do you propose?"

The mayor only looked to the lone survivor, regarding him with a troubled look. "We should let Asuma-san and his subordinates do their work undisturbed." He then turned to said Sarutobi and gestured to him while the others went to where they were to go. "I expect a report this time. I really want whoever's doing this brought to justice. If it's a creature-"

"It'll be put down," Asuma answered with a nod. "But I have faith that my subordinates will be able to accomplish what I couldn't. A few of them have even more brains than I do currently."

"I don't know if that's something to be proud of or ashamed of," Risaikuru replied in a jesting tone. "But it's standard for the younger generation to surpass the older."

The younger man looked at the man's exceeding gray hair which he had neglected to comment on. "I can see why."

…

…

…

"The smell of blood is so thick we could cut it with a knife," Kiba muttered the complaint as he ventured inside the warehouse through the broken-off door like everyone else. "Damn."

Everyone shared the same view, regardless of the fact that their sense of smell wasn't as keen as the Inuzuka's or his ninken. Most complained about the scene, but one way or another, began leaving off in trios to search the warehouse for anything of interest, as per their senseis' instructions.

"What kind of warehouse was this in the first place?" Ino asked herself. "It's a wonder this place is still standing."

"Obviously one that was intact, Ino," Shikamaru drawled in a demure, yet sarcastic tone. "This is so-"

"Don't." Ino cut him off. "You're getting too damn repetitive."

The Nara merely sighed. "Meh. Troublesome woman. Anyway, why don't we just have the Hyuugas just look for us? They have the byakugan, you know."

Elsewhere, Hinata who was using her dojutsu to seemingly stare off in one direction at some crates but her attention was occupied by watching Naruto and the Higurashi girl, the pair was poking around with the gaudy teammate of hers in the green spandex. It was obvious that everyone was going off in teams, and yet Naruto had replaced Neji, and her cousin had replaced-

"My teammate seems to be getting along rather well with yours, Hinata-sama." Neji stated. "Pray tell why."

"I don't know," Hinata answered. "And Neji-niisan, I've said that you may leave off the honorary suffix. I don't find it necessary, or becoming."

"We both know what happened the last time a cadet-branch member left off the suffix when addressing you," Neji replied in an even tone with a small, nigh-unnoticeable scowl on his face. "My mother was punished-"

"Not by me, or my family. It was one of the elders who overheard and instigated the use of her seal and you know I didn't ask for it."

"You told my kaa-san that it was alright to leave off the suffix. It's no small wonder that she's alive. And for information, the elder **is** of your family."

"And you're not?" Hinata answered wisely.

The male Hyuuga scoffed in disgust. "What we have is no family. All we have is the lords with dominion over the dogs that feed on the crumbs that fall."

"I wish things were different, Neji-niisan."

"Merely wishing for things, Hinata-sama? As expected from a main branch member who could have anything she wants just by wishing, contrary to that of my own who have to toil and sweat and bleed just to retain life." Neji turned aside and walked off. "And if you ever be so kind to grant a wish of mine, stop staring at my teammate."

Hinata gasped and held off her usage of the byakugan, shocked that he had caught on to her. As she was left alone, Shino who had been silent close by spoke up.

"Hinata, your cousin has a talent of honey-coating insults."

The girl merely sighed in abandon. "True.' 'Perhaps it would be a good thing to leave the clan.' She turned and looked at Naruto using peripherals and saw him chattering away with Tenten. 'But that may never be, if he actually relates to her better than I do, then-'

"You're thinking about Naruto and Tenten."

She didn't even try to refute the 'polite' accusation. "Hai. I wonder how they know each other so well?"

"Have you been alongside Naruto all of his life, so that you would know?" The Aburame asked.

"No.' 'Perhaps it's time to change that.'

 **That's the end of this chapter, I'm afraid. Well, yeah, this arc will have mostly suspense and mystery, but it's also heavily character driven for…well, the four people, namely Naruto, Tenten, Hinata and Neji, in that order, although Neji's is mostly to give some insight into his character. I also tried to merge scenes rather abruptly with the flashback, so let me know what you thought.**

 **You now know 95% of Naruto's past; it's up to you to fill in the remaining blanks I** _ **i**_ **ntentio** _ **n**_ **ally left unfilled…seriously.**

 **But sorry for letting you wait so long. I hope I haven't disappointed.**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	35. Chapter 35

**Breaking Limits**

 **It's been a while. For this note, let me just comment that I actually kicked myself for the sudden flashback in and out I did last chapter. Apparently, it didn't go down that well but to remain optimistic, I'll learn from my mistakes and be the better for it. Read and enjoy, everyone. Oh, and happy (one year) anniversary to this fic. It's been great. Slow, I admit, but great.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

 _ **To all readers who've been with the fic since it's very debut such as:**_

 _ **Ryuujin96**_

 _ **Maail99**_

 _ **Cuddly Cat**_

 _ **TheRazgrizDragon**_

 _ **Draconicmyth**_

 _ **mavb50**_

 _ **BlackFang413**_

 _ **Peter6517**_

 _ **Kmon13**_

 **Thanks a lot!**

" _ **Being an idealist is not being a simpleton; without idealists there would be no optimism and without optimism there would be no courage to achieve advances that so-called realists would have you believe could never come to fruition." – Alisa Steinberg.**_ __

 **35.**

Hafū took a deep drink on his saucer of high-quality saki. "Of course I knew you would find nothing at all, except for the usual. From the very start, I told him that 'we shouldn't even be out at night'." The factory owner laughed out loud at this. "Ha! Look at him now! He calls me a 'yellow bastard'. Now, he's a dead one."

All of the ninjas together had collectively found nothing in the warehouse save for blood, much to Shōmō's chagrin. This particular official was against the presence of the ninjas from the start, and unwittingly placed himself on Naruto's watch-list for suspicious reasoning. Besides that, all of the genin had re-emerged from the now dank warehouse and assembled under a large tent, close by to the sole survivor of the scrum the night before. Besides the usual people who wore scowls more often than not, even the jounins expected 'better' since tracker genins like Aburame, Inuzuka and Hyuugas were present. If not those, then who?

"He deserved it," Hafū continued between drinks. The officials kept the alcohol flowing; it made the man's tongue loose to speak and relaxed him enough to tell his tale. But there was a need for moderation, or the story would blur into insanity. "He said that when he would soon be mayor-"

"Mayor?" Risaikuru asked dumbfounded, raising a white eyebrow. "He wanted to be mayor? He wanted my position?"

"Damn me if he knew how to get into the position, or why'd he want it to be honest," Hafū spat. "And then he says that my Warui, bless her soul if the man was lying, that she was going to sell out to him so he could own my factory. A doll factory? Why'd a drug dealer want my dolls, hmm?"

"Obviously a guise to hide contraband in," Naruto piped up. Most others from the other teams tried to shush him to quiet, but the half-drunk man leapt up and cried:

"Ding ding ding! Correct! The asshole wanted my dolls to smuggle his shit in!"

The other genins stared at Naruto, taken aback that he actually said something relevant and sensible. It was a long time in coming, but they still hadn't gotten used to it. "What?"

"I says to him…a big fat NO!" Hafū yelled the last. "Then he gets stubborn, _then_ I insulted him."

"What did you say to him?" Kiba asked with a curious look, looking for insult material.

"Hmm…how old are you?" The man asked him. To which, Kiba answered 'fourteen'. The man told the disappointed boy that 'his ears were too young.' After that, the half-drunk man got metaphorical pats on the back for telling that to a dangerous man.

"Then what happened?" One of the lawmen asked. At this point, the drinking man froze up as he stared off at the trashed building where the smell of blood was king. "Hafū?"

All watched the silent man before Naruto spoke up. "I can see it in your face. They were like despicable beasts who knew no mercy. No one did this. It was a _what_. Maybe even plural."

"What?!" Sakura shouted. "This was done by animals?"

"The boy's right," the story-telling man mumbled. "But they weren't no regular animals. They were of all kinds of sizes, some different shades of brown, blacks, striped, spotted…but it didn't matter. There was no real difference to any of them. There was this evil sounding cackling, and then they just barged in, and attacked all of them…slaughtered them. Ate some pieces on the spot, dragged off the rest…"

It was easy to imagine the sight of some of the people there going pale with fright, most horrified at the image that their imagination were providing them, a few others getting sick to their stomachs, but all were stone-faced.

"So these ARE creatures," Shikamaru asked. "How come they attacked the others, but not you? Did you do anything special, non-aggressive to them, hide from them…"

"I didn't do any of those things. I scorned the beasts, yelled at them to go back to wherever the hell they came from, but they took their time doing their business and ignored me, as if I didn't exist to 'em."

If they weren't surprised before, everyone was now thrown for a loop. "They just **ignored** you?" Shōmō cried. "We must find out how you invoked such a phenomenon! You may be the answer to all of our problems! If we could recreate that ignorance of you, it could save the village!"

"Or we could still kill the beasts," Asuma reminded. To which, the important man just scoffed in a pompous manner.

"You may _attempt_ to do so," the man said snidely, reminding the man of his previous failure. "And Hafū's description of them depicts them as possibly demons, if nothing else. What else could inflict such destruction and death in our town?"

'This town's associations with greed, lust, murder and the like invoking demons in the first place. I wonder…why would they leave Hafū alone?'

In the meantime, Hinata mustered the confidence to plant herself beside Naruto, but actually between him and Tenten in the process. The Higurashi became annoyed almost at once with the Hyuuga heiress, but she was ignored as Hinata tried to strike up conversation with Naruto.

"So what do you think, Naruto-kun? About what kinds of creatures they could be?" Hinata asked in a modest tone. "The descriptions are vague."

"Um…" The Uzumaki was well aware of the fact that Tenten looked pissed. In fact, by his 'acquired info through certain sources', he had Tenten figured to have a short fuse. A ten second one, at times. It was best to avoid trouble as soon as possible, and what better way than an introduction?

"Um, Tenten-chan, I nearly forgot." In his mind, Kurama laughed at his host for even saying the phrase, coining the fact that hinted even to the idea of forgetfulness. "I'd like you to meet my teammate, Hinata-chan." This was the first time he was calling the weapon's mistress 'chan' but it was mostly done to appease her. He could keep using it. He was sure that'd make both girls feel equal, to some extent. He then gestured to both at the same time. "And Hinata-chan, meet Tenten-chan."

"Nice to meet you, Hinata," Tenten gritted out through clenched teeth.

"A pleasure," Hinata muttered. "As I was saying-"

"Um, Hinata? I'm sure that you're a really nice person and all, so…if you would _ever so kindly_ make some way for Naruto and I to speak freely to one another."

"Is that a polite way of telling me to get lost?" The Hyuuga bit back.

'Oh boy,' Naruto thought.

" **Oh yes!"** Kurama hailed. **"Vixen fight!"**

'Vixens? Why?' Naruto thought to the beast. 'Why're they acting like this?'

Kurama nearly blew up at Naruto for still being dense, but decided to just nudge the situation a bit. **"Tell you what, why don't you just get up and scooch over and sit between the two of them." 'And so I'll get to see what happens next.'**

"…" With a sigh, Naruto heaved himself up, half ignoring the stares both girls gave him and budged both aside before plopping himself between them. Still following instructions of his tailed beast, he put his arms on and around both of their shoulders. As were the Kyuubi's intentions, both girls were taken by (pleasant) surprise but Kurama didn't expect Tenten to blush quite so much. In fact…

' **Holy shit. Well, I suppose I should have seen this coming, after all, she used a 'kun' suffix not too long ago for the first time, not to mention it was right after her moment of reckoning so long ago. On that day…everything went to hell…'** The monstrous Kitsune sighed deeply.

Naruto could somehow sense the foreboding mood of his inner tailed beast, but didn't question it. Rather, he focused on the two girls he was half-hugging at the same time and smiled cheerfully, although he did notice that both girls were blushing quite a bit. 'Oh great, whatever bug that Hinata had spread to Haku at home, as well as Tenten.' "Enough gripe! Let's all just-"

"Tenten? Hinata-sama?" Neji butted in from nowhere. "What are the two of you doing?"

Both kunoichi's in the making nearly leapt out of their skins at the voice that both knew so well. "N-Nothing, Neji." Tenten stammered a bit nervously. Hinata mumbled something along the lines of 'mind your own business' to him, but if he heard, the stoic Hyuuga didn't pay it any mind.

"Naruto? What's the meaning of this?" Neji asked the Uzumaki now. The bond hadn't retracted his arms yet, but he didn't flush at the 'predicament' he was in.

"Meaning of what? Am I doing something illegal?" He asked sarcastically. "Something wrong with hugging? Two pretty girls at that?"

And…cue full blown blushes and a Hyuuga who was taken aback. "No. _Nothing's wrong_. But I'll have you know that Hinata has no prerogative to be associating with you in any fashion than a purely platonic fashion necessary for teamwork."

"And I'll have **you** know that my parents have given me the right to associate in any manner I please with anyone I choose, nii-san." Hinata replied in turn with a half-frown, half-smirk. "And that includes intimate relationships."

"I see. With the likes of **him**?" Neji spat. "This **failure** of a ninja I've heard so many ridiculous claims about, from his teammates making much out of nothing?"

"Whoa, whoa, I'm taking offense to this," Naruto bit out, getting hot under the collar. "Besides, I, and neither do you have any business concerning who she wants to date. If she wanted to date anyone she wanted to, no one else, not you or me, should have any problems with it."

They were certainly grabbing everyone's attention now, and it came as a half-surprise when Hinata took hold of Naruto's hand by the palm and held it fast. "Absolutely no problem?" She asked, and Naruto could tell that she said with undertones of eagerness slipping through.

"None." He reassured.

Before that continued on that course, Neji stepped forward. "That's fine, Hinata- _sama_ ," he drawled out. "As they say, birds of a feather flock together. You two are good for each other."

"Hmm?" For once since his development of all his cognition abilities, Naruto was well and truly confused and taken aback, as ridiculous and dunce it may seem to anyone who may have been viewing his life as a spectator of sorts. "I don't think I heard you properly. Could you repeat that in my good ear?" And as he said that, he cocked one head towards the cadet Hyuuga.

This only served to piss the cursed Hyuuga off, and apparently Tenten who was used to his tendencies for a long time running, had to step between him and her first (and only) friend.

"That's enough Neji," Higurashi chastised.

On the inside, Gai was mentally cheering, believing that the kunoichi of his squad was making significant progress. On the outside though, he was struggling to keep up an apathetic appearance and wandered off, but determined to stay within earshot. Asuma though, as ashamed as he was to admit it, actually wanted to see a fight develop between Neji and Naruto, just to see who would win. Not to the death, obviously, but a bit of a warm-up or something or other to see who was stronger. The 'Genius of the Hyuuga Clan', or the boy responsible for the success of two A ranked missions, and kill confirmations of several jounins (and chunin) to boot. So help him, he wanted just to see what their mettle was of…in case his own team met them in the exams coming soon.

What? He had his pitfalls like anyone else.

"Are you trying to save him face? Dignity? Or are you defending him?" Neji asked with a raised eyebrow.

Naruto eased himself around the two girls and stood before them, getting in flak's way. "You don't have to answer that, Tenten-chan. Geez, and here I thought I found someone I could talk to. Start fresh with someone who hadn't met me before," he told the Hyuuga. "Not like the people who've been my classmates for years and have me pegged for a guy who shouldn't even be playing with cardboard shuriken, much less be a ninja. But here you are, believing rumors and gossips that I am…"

"If your **well** - **educated** classmates have you off as such, I see no reason not to believe them," Neji condescended with a smirk.

"Is that the so called 'Genius of the Hyuuga' has to come up with? And here I thought that he would be smart enough to have an advanced intellect. Instead, he's nothing but a platitudinous individual."

Neji did something he had never done before. He blinked…in confusion. "Hmm?"

Naruto smiled in self-accomplishment. "Exactly. Let me dumb it down for you. You're just another stock person to me, like so many others in the village. Nothing special. And to be frank…" Naruto stopped smiling and frowned deeply. "I look down on people like you."

The air grew cold as killing intent petered out from both individuals against each other. In fact, it got so bad that Chouji tried to clear the air, getting nervous. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I didn't get any breakfast…let's all head back, huh?"

"And we'll have it…afterwards," Shōmō said quietly. "I want to see what happens."

"Is it such a good idea to have a situation like this?" Risaikuru asked Asuma not-too-discretely. "Isn't it bad for inter-team relations?"

"It might make things fester if we try to stop it," Asuma 'decided', as if he hadn't known what he had wanted already. "Let them sort it out." He now whistled shrilly to all to hear. "All right everyone! We know what we're after! We're here to kill whatever's committing the murders! I want all trackers and such to start looking for clues to try and tail wherever they went! Hustle!" He walked purposefully, keeping in mind that all were following him, save for the conflicting four. He let it go…Gai was watching them too. If needs be, Gai could step in and stop it before anything happened. Although he hoped that-

"Now then, _Neji_ ," Naruto nearly spat the name. "Please…get the **hell** out of my way."

Neji had no answer except to glare at the blond.

"I'm a peace loving guy," Naruto said tensely. "But don't make me have to walk over you."

Neji coughed once throatily…and spat.

…

…

Right on Naruto's shirt.

Naruto continued to look straight at him in a sort of apathy, but to his right and left, Tenten and Hinata were horrified. As they could see a smirk coming into existence on the pale boy's face, a clone poofed into existence behind him. Sensing danger, side-branch member turned sideways-turned to face whatever had caused the sound, only for two fists from either side cracked into the boy's jaw at the same time, creating a standstill effect as Neji's jaw was nearly compressed together.

As he was stunned, Naruto grabbed the boy's collar and ripped a piece of the boy's shirt and wiped off the phlegm and saliva mixture on his shirt and threw it in the Hyuuga's face. As soon as Naruto was about to walk past him, the clone was dispelled a blurringly quick jyuuken and another sent right at him at the neck. Naruto hurriedly dressed back to dodge it, but the Hyuuga would have none of it as he pushed off an angled leg to push forward to minimize distance to land his hit.

In fact, Naruto could have bitten it right there had not it been for Tenten grabbing Neji's shoulder and upper arm to stop him. It stopped Neji's fingers just an inch or two from his target, buying Naruto the opportunity to finish backing up out of the way.

"Unhand me!" Neji bit out aberrantly, before shrugging her off by flaring chakra from the tenketsu in his upper arm and pressing the offensive once more.

He hadn't realized it at the time, but what he did inflicted chakra burns on the palms, quite badly so that one might easily notice. To her credit though, she hardly made a sound and kept the pain locked up inside clenched teeth. She bore it, and could only watch as her teammate and sole friend duked it out between each other that was all hit and dodge…one trying to do all the hitting, and one doing nothing but dodging.

Naruto could feel the strain of trying to dodge the agile and infuriated Hyuuga. 'Oh boy, I'd better not piss off Hinata-chan if she can move like this. Not that I'd ever want to hit her or anything. But what did she mean?'

Focus had taken over and he remained active in battle while his thoughts had gone elsewhere. 'That conversation between them. Me? I'm nothing special. What did she mean by-' "Whoa!" Reflex took over and made him duck a palm that would have taken him in the face. "Are there even tenketsus in my face, Neji? Getting angry, are we?"

"I'll put down trash where it belongs! An orphan, a nobody at best being valued more than the cadet branch of the same clan is more than one can stand!" Neji growled out in frustration. " **Hakke: Rokujuuyon shou!** " (Eight Trigrams: sixty-four palms)

"No!" Gai yelled. He was about to intercept the attack when Asuma put his arm out in front of the Taijutsu specialist. "What?!"

"Let them settle this, Gai. We'll only intervene when it's absolutely necessary." Asuma watched along with everyone else as Neji began his damaging offense and after he nicked Naruto several times (those **did** look like lucky hits, after all,) around sixteen, Naruto became numb and unable to dodge the rest that pummeled their way into his tenketsu, soon blowing him away from the force of the final impact unto his back several feet away, his chakra sealed.

"Naruto-kun!" (x2) Hinata and Tenten-yelled at the same time in worry.

"Hmph!" Neji gloated with a half-smirk/half-scowl. "Once trash, always trash!" The moment was short-lived, however, as Naruto hauled himself back unto his feet, determined that he was just going to rough up his adversary just enough to make him learn that he had erred in his judgement of him. But as he was getting up, he couldn't help but notice Tenten cradling her hands as if she had injured them somewhat, somehow.

"Somehow," he muttered. He recalled everything to mind and remembered seeing her flinch when Neji had flared chakra from his tenketsu. But she didn't yelp or anything of the sort in pain, so…

He activated his 'Insight' ability and instantly, everything of interest stood out in highlighted silver. Immediately, he noticed that all of the rest of the rookie nine (except for Shino and Sasuke) back with the jounin-senseis were actually cheering for Neji. It's not as if they were biased against him (some probably were); they were merely cheering for the side that they believed would win.

Sasuke was uncaring either way, but why was he watching the fight with his sharingan on? Shino was just being…Shino, he supposed. But when he arrived back to his first issue of Tenten's hands, he could plainly see that they were highlighted as well. In fact, they were badly burned. Naruto didn't feel primal at that point, or angry enough to the point of inducing the effects of Kurama's chakra. Hell, even the beast's presence was silent, as if not wanting to influence his decision either way. But he was pissed. He was not afraid to admit that he had always felt an obligation to keep the Higurashi safe and free from harm; hence why so many things were done. It was all because of Tenten, and FOR Tenten. And to see her hurt just because she wanted to stop her teammate from doing something to injure him, (Naruto) when he could've done something to end the fight before it even began…

Naruto (temporarily) lost his desire to make peace. He lost his pacifism and in return, gained an uncontrollable urge to show the Hyuuga where HE belonged.

He ignored the gawking from the jounins and Hinata and Tenten and stared fully at the Hyuuga who was glaring at him. He could tell that everyone was staring at his eyes in particular, their strange and hitherto to be seen design, but he didn't care. He reached behind him and into his weapon's pouch and pulled on his resilience gloves tightly, before clenching them into fists. He hadn't had them on since the mission to Wave, but they'd serve their purpose.

"How are you still standing?" Neji bit out. "And what abominations do you have settled in your skull?"

Naruto wouldn't answer him though. His gravity seal was on 4, but he discretely lowered it to 3. When he was done here, he was going to teach Neji a thing or two about manners.

A dramatic pause swept through the area as everyone; ninjas, lawmen and important town officials watched the two genins duked it out. In fact, they would have remained like that hadn't Tenten winced in pain and Naruto grew upset, even more than he was before.

The distance between the two fighters were lessened quickly and the conflict resumed as Neji smirked at the 'stupidity' of a person taking on a Hyuuga with just taijutsu. The cadet Hyuuga thrusted a right jyuuken palm forward at Naruto but the blond half turned sideways and grabbed it at the wrist with his own right. Not wasting a single move, he finished the turn to slam his left wrist on Neji's jaw or neck, but the Hyuuga wisely lifted his left arm to block it.

In a blur of movement, Neji had his blocking hand gripping Naruto's own to trap him. Before he could capitalize on it, Naruto entrapped the back of his left leg behind both of Neji's and savagely swept it closer to him to trip the boy from behind.

It didn't work, but it bought Naruto the distraction he needed to use might to wrench his arm back from the Hyuuga and leap away from him.

"Whoa, is Naruto actually taking on a Hyuuga with just Taijutsu?" Ino amazed. "He's still standing!"

Shikamaru inched over to his sensei. "Sensei, shouldn't you stop this? This isn't just a spar; they're actually fighting."

"I know."

"Naruto is fighting a _Hyuuga_ , sensei…using Taijutsu."

Even now, Asuma had yet to take off his eyes from Naruto, or more specifically, his face. 'What's up with those eyes? That's just…weird. I've never seen eyes like that before…'

While murmurings and the usual occurred with the bystanders and spectators looking on at the boys actually fighting, for once, Naruto didn't mind. 'People just being people.' "Neji, you pompous bastard! You burnt your own teammate! To what?! Just to _try_ to kill me?!"

"Hmph. She should not have interfered," the Hyuuga said, secure in himself, despite the glare he was getting from his own sensei.

"Who gave you the right to judge me? To judge her? To judge anyone?" Naruto rushed him again, tightening his fists as he approached. In preparation, Neji readied himself again, although he was wondering how Naruto was actually still standing from the earlier sealing of his tenketsu.

Neji replied, not even realizing that he was making an antagonist of himself. "I'm entitled to my opinion, and my opinions of you, Hinata-sama and even Tenten are quite low-"

"Keep your damn opinions to yourself!" Naruto was at him now, and threw a feint at the boy's gut with his left, before throwing the right one at the Hyuuga's neck. To his credit, it would have worked, but Neji hadn't been called a genius for nothing; he saw through the feint easily. Deflecting the right hand, he was about to just palm the insolent Uzumaki and be done with it, but Naruto resumed the left feint by five-finger jabbing Neji in the gut, and grabbing hold, clothes and flesh in grip as well. As he pulled the Hyuuga towards him, Naruto stomped on Neji's feet and leapt upwards with a right shoulder into the pale-complexioned lad from under the chin.

It wasn't much compromise at such close quarters, but at the very least it had delayed the gentle-fist user from doing what he exceled at…besides being a person who looked down on people because of their ideals, backgrounds and other such histories.

He pissed Naruto off. He really did.

All listened as Neji continued to speak, determined to undermine the boy he was fighting to throw him off. "You've always failed. Hinata has always failed. Even Tenten, although she has tried to better herself over time. Born failures, live as failures, die failures. You can't escape it."

"I take it you were born a winner?" 'Alright, Insight keeps giving me ideas on how to beat him, but I want to beat him within an inch of his life. I suppose the tactics is about keeping him from attacking me with his jyuuken.' Re-assuming a running stance, Naruto dashed with a low center of gravity at the Hyuuga and about a meter away, leaned and fell into a slide to Neji's right that took him off guard and off his feet.

Literally.

As Naruto slid past him in the dust that rose up like a conceal, he grabbed Neji's ankle and pulled on it, using his sliding momentum as a buffer for strength. With Neji tripped up, Naruto leapt back unto his feet as Neji was just getting back up at the same time. It seemed like an effort wasted.

Neji actually chuckled grimly to himself. "Is there a reason why you chose to wallow in the dirt like a disgusting creature?"

Naruto said nothing. Instead, he slow-ran at Neji purposefully, intent on finishing this fiasco. As he closed those final meters, he glanced at all those around him and saw Tenten staring at him in particular and he nodded to her; he was sure that she noticed. Next to her, Hinata was cheering him on, and he couldn't help but think that she had come a long way from being a shy girl who kept blushing around him and…

He glanced to the other side and noticed that everyone else was still watching, but Sasuke was seemingly glaring at him with his sharingan ablaze, a frown marring his features. Deciding to file that away for later, he refocused on his fight. Within a ten-second bout, he had both of Neji's wrists gripped in his hands.

Before Neji could possibly counterattack, Naruto spewed dirt from his mouth that he had inconspicuously 'taken in his mouth' during his slide with his free hand. Alas, it was sweet revenge when he spat a half-mouthful of dirt all at once into Neji's precious eyes. Wonder how he never saw that coming? When a particular thing as an x-ray vision goes too far in depth.

"Agh! My eyes!" Neji bawled. Not missing a beat, Naruto released the grip of his right hand to curl a punch into his stomach. As he doubled over, Naruto grabbed the Hyuuga's head with both hands and slammed it down unto an uprising knee; (un)fortunately, depending on who you asked, the attack smashed Neji's nose in, stifling his cries to a squealing grunt as it started to bleed heavily.

Before he could recover, Naruto lifted the Neji up by his shoulders to make him stand up. This only lasted for a full second, before Naruto happened. Naruto happened with four punches in four places almost all at once in Neji's stomach, liver, and twice in his chest.

"Are you going to stop this, Gai?" Asuma whispered discretely to the taijutsu master.

"No," the jounin answered uncharacteristically with a shake of the head. "I'm sure Naruto knows when to stop. Besides, to be frank, Neji's had this coming."

Back to the fight, Naruto thrust-kicked Neji in his already badly hurt gut. Doubling over for the last time, Naruto readied himself for the last. With a throaty yell of utmost exertion, Naruto doubled both of his fists together in a double axe handle and recreating what he did in Wave, using nothing but pure effort, lifted his arms over his head before yelling in a rage.

"Am I a failure, Neji?! Watch me fail this!"

He brought his hands in a double-axe handle down unto the back of the Hyuuga's head, smashing him onto the ground as hard as he could in a 45' degree angle, actually sending the genius into a scorpion-slide wipeout backwards for all of three meters, raising dust and a cry that was cut short.

When the dust cleared, it was revealed that Neji was lying face down in a mound of dirt he had gouged out with his face, unconscious.

The clearing was now silent, but as Naruto glared around at everyone as if to dare them to say something, his eyes softened when they settled on the two girls who were off to the side. With a humble sort of saunter, he approached them. "Are you two alright?"

"I'm…fine," Hinata admitted.

"Errm," Tenten winced a bit as she tried to hide her burnt hands behind her. "Me too."

"No you're not," Naruto chided gently. He turned back to Hinata and queried, "did you try to heal her hands?"

"How did-" Tenten began.

"I'm unable," Hinata muttered, glancing back at her unconscious cousin.

"What do you mean, unable to? I've seen you heal burns, Hinata-chan."

"Naruto-kun, it's fine." Tenten looked at Hinata funnily before beckoning to her. "I need to-" For the first time, she took notice of his eyes and their black & white cartwheel design. "What's up with your eyes?"

Naruto didn't even get a chance to respond before all the rest of the others caught up to him, mobbing him in from all sides, as if they were penning him in.. Or…most of them, anyway.

"Naruto won!"

"I can't believe it!"

"Whoa!"

"Naruto, what's up with the funny contact lenses?"

"*Munch.* Is that a dojutsu? *Munch*"

Asuma and Gai had that reasoned to be the truth when they saw the lad's eyes, but no one had approached Neji to see if he was alright.

"C'mon guys, I need some space-" Naruto spoke up, but was interrupted.

"You fought a Hyuuga with just taijutsu and a cheap shot and won? Damn!"

"Please, excuse me-" He tried again but failed.

"Dirty cheap shot! Ha! Get it?!"

"Get out of my way!" Naruto roared. Without even waiting for his demand to be granted, he barged through and past everyone in his way with a sudden ferocity and strength. In his current nature, he stomped away in a fit, before he dashed away in a huff. As soon as that chapter came to a close, Shikamaru made an observation, in the form of a question.

"Um…where's Neji?"

The cadet branch Hyuuga was gone as well. No one had even seen when he was going, but as certain as certain could be, he was gone.

 **=X=X=**

Haku's day was developing normally. After a morning of ensuring that the house was spotless, then some breakfast, she finished it off with a cup of black tea. As she sat there in the kitchen, she couldn't help but wish for some company.

"It wouldn't hurt not to be specific," she mumbled to herself. "I miss Master, even though it's been such a short period of time. I wonder how he's been keeping up?"

She felt a bit disquieted as she asked herself this, almost as if she got a spell of a premonition. She shook it off after a brief bout and started washing dishes, although few they may be since it was just her. 'But despite all of this, do I feel any sort of romanticism with him? I'm sure that the 'kiss on the cheek' thing was just a joke, I'm sure, I'm sure, I'm sure.'

Haku knew that at that point when he asked, she felt exceptionally daring, although she was afraid to. How could she not, especially after what kind of life she'd led? She wasn't a normal, teenage girl; she was a kunoichi, a damn good one at that too, if her history with Zabuza had any say in any of it.

"And then Naruto came along…"

Ah yes. Normal teenage girls lived like normal teenage girls. Teenage kunoichis lived like teenage kunoichis. Normal teenage girls had hormones. Haku? Well…

"Damn hormones," Haku muttered almost angrily to herself as she finished up the dishes and withdrew to her room to put on proper clothing to go out in. "They did say that absence makes the heart grow fonder."

Shortly at the halfway point; that is, unclothed and ready to put on the next set, her eyes returned to the bed and a thought came to her. A naughty one, by her standards.

She had never done it before she came of age at her parents house, but she would unwillingly admit that she had done the deed while under Zabuza's tutelage. Certainly not while he was around, but he wasn't always breathing down her neck. But certainly not on a bed as comfortable as the one she was currently eyeing.

She actually deliberated with herself for a full two minutes before deciding not to.

"I dare not to defile the bed…"

The bed seemingly called out to her, and she so _badly_ wanted to. It was a perfect opportunity; her master was out for a week or more, all alone in a big house and that **bed**. That now thrice damned but oh-so-comfortable bed was practically yelling-

" _You know you want to!"_

"No I don't!" Haku hissed to the bed, almost as if she were crazy. Absentmindedly, she could feel her heart-rate quickening in tandem.

" _Well, you're only in your panties; I can see that your nipples are hardening! What do you have to say about that, huh?"_

She looked down tentatively. In her frenzied mind, she didn't stop to think that she was going mental, arguing with a bed, for Kami's sakes. Well, she instead yelled at the bed that it was a perve while blushing heavily.

"Is that so? Fine. Who am I thinking about this time?"

The bed actually stammered in speech. _"Um…well…just fuckin' do it already!"_ And then the bed, Haku would swear later, the bed jiggled a bit.

With nary a second thought, Haku went streaking out of the room to get to the shower, actually going to the point of using her powers to nearly freeze herself to death.

…

Anko peeped over the windowsill to Haku's bedroom. 'This 'servant' girl's got some quirks. Was she actually arguing with her bed whether or not she wanted to masturbate? She might as well have done it and get it done with. Or actually doing the guy she wants, she's got the looks for it.'

She let herself fall down silently and ambled off into the town. 'I wonder who though?' She thought a bit and snickered to herself.

"Heh heh. Probably the so-called 'transformed' gaki. Life in Konoha certainly got more interesting for the village pariah...besides me of course."

 **=X=X=**

Naruto was far away from anyone he knew, back in the commercial part of the town. 'What a day.'

He was seated on the sidewalk in front of a building he knew nothing about. It was just him (Kurama was meditating in the seal, his presence and consciousness was elsewhere) the bustle of people passing him by in and out of the establishment, he didn't know what to do first.

He wanted to continue fuming about Neji's prerogatives, he wanted to head back to where he had left him and thrash him some more, if he wanted to just be there for the girls like a comfort medium, like an emotional tower of support, wonder how he felt about the two of them, try to figure out why Hinata was 'unable' to heal Tenten, why-

"Hey kid, you're in the way of honest folk!" A gruff voice exclaimed angrily. "Ge' away from 'ere!"

"Hmm?" Naruto turned to the speaker. Said speaker looked like a stereotypical bouncer-like person in front of the doorway, while Naruto sat on the edge of the verandah designed entry way. Apparently, his presence was inconveniencing people who wanted to pass by him. "Oh, sorry."

"Yeah, yeah. Go loiter somewhere else!"

The man's tone carried massive hints to him of how he used to be and was still treated back in Konoha. He couldn't help but feel like he was pumping a lot of energy, time and resources into a village that neither appreciated it **or** him for it. Then again, if they knew what he had done, would they have thanked him? More than likely, it would have been repaid by several arsons, and what had actually been helping the village to get back unto its feet as a crutch would have been destroyed, leaving the village in shambles again.

"You still here, brat?"

With a sigh, Naruto heaved himself up and ambled off, deciding to avoid trouble. But he had no real destination in mind. 'What the hell is up with Hinata-chan? It's almost as if she resents Tenten. I wonder why? Hmm…and what was she saying? What was Neji saying?

" _No. Nothing's wrong. But I'll have you know that Hinata has no prerogative to be associating with you in any fashion than a purely platonic fashion necessary for teamwork."_

"I can understand that, Neji-teme," Naruto relented to himself with a mumble under his breath. "That would be more professional, but why would he say it like that? Think. What did Hinata answer?"

" _And I'll have_ _ **you**_ _know that my parents have given me the right to associate in any manner I please with anyone I choose, nii-san. And that includes intimate relationships."_

'Hmm…nothing concrete there, but…' Naruto felt something like a shovel clout him on the top of his head, almost like a Godsend way of knocking sense into him. He decided to bear through it an continue to recall.

" _I see. With the likes of_ _ **him**_ _?" Neji practically spat the words at him. "This_ _ **failure**_ _of a ninja I've heard so many ridiculous claims about, from his teammates making much out of nothing?"_

" _Whoa, whoa, I'm taking offense to this," he had answered heatedly. "Besides, I've no business concerning who she wants to date. If she wanted to date anyone she wanted to…"_

 _He had had a bit of a surprise when Hinata took a hold of Naruto's hand by the palm and held it fast. "Absolutely no problem?" She asked eagerly._

" _None." He had answered._

" _That's fine, Hinata-sama," Neji said nastily. "As they say, birds of a feather flock together. You two are good for each other."_

Then Naruto felt that sensation of a Godsend shovel smacking him in the head again. "Ah! Damn it! How dense could I have been?! All of that just went clear over my head and I was just standing there?! How long has this been going on for?"

He got no answer, and he had no idea if he should be relieved, so that he couldn't be shamed, or angry (at himself) for not seeing this sooner. 'Kami. This has got to be the biggest thing to happen to me since manifesting these abilities… No. To be able to say I took it upon myself to ensure the village is taken care of?... No. Meeting…Tenten-chan?' A light blush crept into his face, recalling how he used to have to care for her…particularly in the ways of hygiene (cough-bathing-cough).

It was probably for the best that he hadn't gone through puberty yet at the time, but now he was post that stage and he was 'blessed with memory-recall'. It was easy to remember her then, and piece together how she looked like now.

Not that he was trying to. He just couldn't help it. Absentmindedly, he felt a heat spread through his loins and since he was in public, he did what he usually had to whenever times like this came about.

He sat in the nearest bench…with one leg angled over the other. Needless to say, it was painful, but necessary in order to hide his growing erection.

'Maybe meeting…Hinata-chan? The botched defense of her and those bullies. I-…my memories keep bringing her up and…huh. She was cute back then too, huh?'

Unbeknownst to him, Kurama's presence had returned, eager to share news of Nariwa's latest achievement but was interrupted by the boy's thoughts. He was about to speak up but as he listened, he realized that Naruto had finally realized the Hyuuga heiress's feelings for him. **'Goddamn, my container finally grew a brain, despite boasting of having one the size of Iron Country. Heh. I knew he would finally realize…'** The beast chanced a look to the tree of the mindscape where he had etched the date when he first decided to let Naruto figure it out. Staring at the date for a while, he decided to speak up.

" **Oi, gaki!"**

Caught flat-footed, the Uzumaki fumbled with his thinking for a bit, trying to think of anything else but the Hyuuga kunoichi. In his blunder, he started thinking about Fu and Haku in the kinds of memories that a boy would think of, trying to figure out if a girl like him in 'that sorta way' or not. Needless to say, Kurama was relieved. It'd been too long. _Far too long_.

"Egh hem. Yessss, Kurama?" Naruto asked aloud, trying to sound as innocent as possible.

" **Goddamn it, brat! Don't act like you weren't thinking about the girls! YEEESSS!"** The Beast howled. **(1)** **"It's been a whole damn year!** **And here I was, wondering what the hell was Kami thinking, making a guy as smart like you but had the emotions and common sense of a lifeless rock! YEAAAHHH!"**

"Huh?" Was Naruto's most intelligent answer. "What're you talking about?"

Kurama quickly brought Naruto up to speed about he had keeping track of Naruto's cluelessness. Hell, even the other members had known about it through gossip, and yet still the main was oblivious. It was even present from the very day he helped the girl (Hinata) in the first place.

Naruto blinked in confusion. "Then why the hell didn't you tell me!" He roared out loud. Passersby regarded the fourteen year old boy sitting on the bench in confusion, worry, interest and skepticism and Naruto had the decency to feel a bit embarrassed for acting up. He soon turned this into rage as they were staring incessantly and he let them know that he was aware.

"What the **fuck** are y'all looking at?!"

They quickly averted their gazes and their steps quickened away from him and he turned back to his beast. 'I've been going through this kind of crap all this time, wondering if anyone cared about me, and you kept it from me as a joke? You had to let me find out for myself?!'

" **Yes,"** the Kitsune deadpanned. **"Don't blame me, blame whoever decided to focus more on drama and action in your life than romance." (2)**

'You're blaming this on Kami?'

Kurama shrugged again in his cage. **'It was funny. Besides, you and I both know you're trying to vent anger on me instead of on yourself for not realizing it sooner.'**

…

 **=X=X=**

He walked confidently to the same building he was practically chased from. The bouncer-like man was there, and frowned when he saw him. "Oi, young blood! Didn't I tell you to clear outta here?"

Naruto purposefully approached the entrance. "Step aside, please. I'm here on business. I've been looking for a bank since yesterday."

The man raised a questioning eyebrow. "It's always been here. You're not from around 'ere, are you?"

"No. Now lemme through."

"No." The man said immediately. Naruto shook his head and proffered his hand to gesture that he wanted to shake hands.

"That's fine." Both of them shook hands, and the guard was pleasantly surprised when he pulled his hand away to reveal a yellow coin there.

"Is this…gold?" He looked it over carefully. "Hot-damn. Hold on, is this a bribe?"

"No." Naruto shook his head quickly. "It's to show that I too, have the means to do my business here. Now hand it back. If you take it, then it'll either be a bribe, or stealing."

The boy had a point there, and the man told him so. "That's true. Go on in. And make sure you get your right pricing, 'cause to be frank…" he leaned over to Naruto and gestured for him to come closer so he could whisper to him clearly. "Some of 'em bankers are just crooks." He then handed the coin back to the Uzumaki.

"I'll keep that in mind."

Whistling, and with a spring in his step, Naruto marched in, intent on getting his money's worth of gold.

 **=X=X=**

"They were stubborn, but thanks for telling me. I didn't get a bad price, but it's slightly lesser than I've gotten before."

"You do this often?" The bouncer asked, baffled.

"The source is dry," Naruto said carefully. "So no more prospecting for me. That chapter of my life is over and done with. This area is…I'm going to be frank…your economy sucks."

"Aye, it does." The man agreed. "The town's gone to shit. Druggies, whores, corruption, backstabbin' betrayers, now these murders have started up again. I dunno why I ever came to this place."

Naruto was tempted to say that it was more than likely a supernatural creature killing the people, but what good would that have done? Not much. "I'm sorry to hear. You should get a weapon, y'know, so you can defend yourself if anything should happen." This was his way of instilling a sense of security.

"I can barely make ends meet, how'd I get a wep?"

Naruto reached into his pocket and handed the man some money. "Get yourself a cutlass or something."

The man stared at the money. "I…I can't take this and sleep well tonight." He tried handing the money back to Naruto, but the adolescent refused.

"Nah, it's cool. I can afford to give you that."

"I haven't earned it. Besides, that's three times the cost of a cutlass."

"Tell you what," Naruto decided at last. "You can earn it by pointing me out to the nearest-"

 **=X=X=**

It was now nightfall, and everyone was in their rooms. Awake? Of course they all were. From the jounin who looked expectant, as if waiting for Naruto to try something (charitable) and catch him in the act, to the genin who were up discussing the fight between Neji and Naruto, to a pair of kunoichi who sat next to each other by the window for privacy, quietly conversing.

"He said you could heal burns," Tenten muttered. "So why couldn't you help me with mine?" She held up her hands and gazed upon her inflamed hands. "I can't believe Neji did this, but I just don't understand why you can't heal my hands. You haven't even tried."

Hinata didn't say anything, afraid that her voice would betray her. A sideways glance from the weapons mistress told her that the girl looked thoughtful, and this raised concerns. "It's not that you can't, is it? It's because you don't _want_ to."

Hinata remained silent.

"I can get that you don't want to, even though I don't understand why. It's like ever since that you met me, you've had it in for me, but I haven't done anything wrong by you."

Hinata was tempted to tell her to go and kill herself, anything to stay out of the way of a relationship with 'her Naruto-kun' but the reality of which that Tenten received the chakra burns trying to help Naruto. After this epiphany, she could merely sigh in relent.

"Gomenasai, Tenten. You're right. It is that I didn't want to. Please give me your hands." She motioned to the bun-haired girl to lay her hands across so that she could heal them. Higurashi did so very hesitantly, fearing that she was going to do something adverse but persisted anyhow.

Going through the handseals for the **Shosen** , Hinata then began the process and as soon as she did, Tenten felt a pleasant cooling sensation. In the meanwhile, the two girls continued their conversation.

"I was…being jealous of the closeness the two of you shared. I wanted something like that between Naruto-kun and I for so long and you just came one day and the two of you were like old friends, even more than that to me, even."

"We do go back a long way," Tenten confessed. "He used to take care of me. It's-…complicated. Ow!" Tenten felt a pain sear through her burnt hands and eyed Hinata carefully. "Did you do that on purpose?"

"To be honest, I did do that more forceful than necessary."

"You know, before my dad died, he used to tell me that men don't go to barbers who don't like them. I think something like that applies to here, don't you think?" **(2)**

"Gomen."

"Anyway, we were just catching up. Besides, if you like the guy so much, why don't you just tell him?"

"I came so close to telling him so many times and I unintentionally dropped hints about this, but a certain… _fox_ ," Hinata said carefully, looking for adverse reactions, "told me that he was dense about things like this."

"I know what you mean," Tenten consoled. "I know about that _fox_ , too."

"…" Hinata nodded. "But every time I wanted to just yell it to him, I got cold feet."

"I'm sure he'll finally figure it out after today. What with the way you and Neji were carrying on."

The Hyuuga heiress looked away. "I dunno. He still mightn't get it. But if he does, I don't think I would have wanted it that way though. I wanted to be able to tell him to his face."

After a few minutes of silent healing, Tenten got a 'brilliant' idea. "Tell you what," she grinned; a naughty looking one at that. "Why don't you get some practice?"

 **=X=X=**

Naruto finished his penning and folded the card and carefully tied with string as an accompanier. He was hoping that he could gift her tomorrow. The selections he made took a lot of time, but he hoped it'd be worth it.

"Naruto, what're you doing? Where've you been since you left this morning?"

The Uzumaki turned carefully to address the voice. "Oh, hey Shika. I'm just…getting along fine."

"Who's that that bou-"

"It's not your business to know!" Naruto insisted, trying to keep everything hush-hush. "Why don't you just go back to sleep!"

"Naruto…it's one in the morning. Shouldn't **you** be asleep too? I mean, damn, you just tip-toed in a half-hour ago, for Kami's sakes."

"That woke you?" Naruto asked, perplexed.

"No. The smell of that laven-"

"Shhh! Fine, I'm going to bed!" Naruto fumed silently at being caught in the act of doing whatever the hell he was doing. After placing it carefully in a seal, he dropped the seal on the dresser and hurriedly changed into his sleeping garb and took to the last futon on the floor. "Why'd you be concerned over me, anyway? Last I checked, sleeping was high on your list of priorities, whichever, whatever and whenever."

"So I take it you **are** doing something you're not proud of?"

"I'm doing something I don't want you all to be _aware_ of."

Shikamaru sighed long and deep, resolute not to fall asleep just yet. "The difference between the two is about as big as the width of a strand of hair."

"Why do you have to know what I'm doing?" Naruto queried, getting impatient. "Is it more important than sleeping to you?"

"Naruto…I know that you wouldn't consider me a friend. Think of me as an associate who's concerned for your well-being… that and the fact that you made an enemy of Hyuuga who can kill you with just a touch while you sleep. Don't you want someone to watch your back?"

"I can watch my own." 'I've even got a nine tailed biju named Kurama watching my back. Do you think you can match that?'

" **You tell him, gaki!"** Kurama shouted before butting out again.

"Fine. But uh, have you seen Neji before you came back. The guy came back at dinner time with a broken nose and more than just a few cracks in his head. He's laid up."

"He's had it coming. Hinata-chan used to tell me about him and needless to say, she was not exaggerating. She still has hopes that he can change his snobbish ways but I wouldn't look too much into that."

"Naruto…" Shikamaru said with a yawn.

"Yeah?"

"Goddamn, you're strange."

And with that, Shikamaru turned to face the wall away from a sweat-dropping Naruto, and went to sleep. Naruto, seeing no reason not to do the same, did as well, lying on his back.

 **=X=X=**

"C'mon, Hinata!" One girl hissed to another in a scream-whisper. "Don't you chicken out on me!"

"Ano, I think I'm going to…pass out…"

The first girl rolled her eyes. "Damn, what a drama queen. Just get your ass inside before I kick it inside for you."

The second girl hesitated, making the first one fume. "Alright, I'll go in first so that you'll know it's safe." Tenten climbed up to the window by walking up with the aid of chakra and eased the lattice windows apart. The second it did, there was the sound of a creak and a twitch before Tenten let herself inside.

"Hmm…They're all sleeping." She murmured. She quickly reached her hand outside and helped Hinata inside. "See? It's safe."

How safe were two girls who just broke into the room of four guys? Not very, and Hinata told her so. "Let's just do this and leave."

They crept around the futons to Naruto's at knelt at his either sides at the chest level. "Aw look at him," the Higurashi noted. "I never really got to appreciate looking at him asleep like this."

"You used to see him while he slept?"

"Long story. It's…well," the bun-haired girl looked thoughtful. "On a level of just looks, yeah, he's a handsome guy by any sensible girl's standards. Just look at him; his jaw's almost completely squared now, I'm not even seeing any baby fat on his face and the whiskers…" Tenten's eyes widened as Hinata's own glazed over as she reached out a hand and started stroking Naruto's whisker marks back and forth tenderly.

"Mmm…" Naruto moaned a little as he seemed to lean in towards her soothing hand like how an animal would press more into a person's hand that was giving them 'sugar'. To Tenten's astonishment, Hinata started using her other hand to start doing the other side and before she knew it, it was like she had Naruto leashed to her gentle hands.

"I can't tell who's enjoying it more, you or him," Tenten whispered worriedly. "You gonna quit that before he wakes up and just talk to him instead."

Hinata who had apparently retreated to her own little world came to, and blushed fiercely. "I…I've always wanted to do that, gomen." 'Talk about role reversal.' The act must've have given her a new kick in the pants as she no longer felt worried. "Are you finished?"

The Higurashi shook her head as she turned to the sleeping blond. "No. But anyway, I don't know how I have you off as, Naruto-kun. I don't know if I love you like how you like a boyfriend like Hinata, or even like a brother, or hell, even like a **father**. Weird huh?"

Naruto, of course, said nothing.

"And now when I think about it, I feel like you've still been taking care of me over the years. How, why, when and where, I don't know. While I might object to it because it might be excessive, I want to say thanks. Thanks, Naruto-kun…a whole lot. I love you a whole lot."

Hinata didn't know how to react to that, but she remained silent as Tenten continued. "I don't know why or how, I just know that I do. Okay, Hinata. Your turn."

Hinata hesitated only once before she started. "I've known you a long time, Naruto-kun, but even I still can't figure you out completely. In time, I hope to do so. I admit to…stalking you," she glanced to Tenten who nodded to her to 'don't stop'. "And it's how I've gotten to learn so much about you. You're always helping people, saving people, feeding them, always on these goodwill missions to them. Even on your missions, you were always doing this…In Kimyō Town, Nami no Kuni or even in your own home village. I used to see you as your alter-ego with the mask and hood on, helping people when the Leaf was in hard times."

"You knew about that?" Tenten asked, baffled.

"I was following him, and I have the byakugan," Hinata whispered back as if it was obvious. She then looked back down again at the sleeping blond. "You've even helped me back then, and sometimes when I sleep, I feel like I remember you helping me even before that, back when I got kidnapped. My parents described the stranger who saved me, and when I look at you and remember your alter-ego, I keep thinking that it's you. In mind's eye, the two of you look so much alike. But you would be around six years old then, so I guess that doesn't make any sense." She laughed embarrassedly at this. "Ever since you stood up for me and even willing to take punishment for it against my wishes, you…" She inhaled and exhaled purposefully. "You've always had me in your consideration, when arguably, I didn't deserve it. I was somewhat better off than most people, but that was in a materialistic way. You've held my heart for so long and have done nothing but win my admiration, adoration and love for you. Your qualities, even in your self-claimed faults, caring, kind, considerate and passionate about doing the right thing…it might seem foolish to just entertain love on just seeing these qualities of you at our 'tender-ages', but if not now, when? If not you, who? If not here, where? If not like this, how? If not for reasons like this, why?"

Naruto said nothing as he was sound asleep, but Tenten noticed that he was smiling. Perhaps what was being done was passing into his dreams, if he was having one. But she positively, did **not** expect Hinata to fully lean over and kiss him fully on the lips. It was only a peck, but it was just as well. He was asleep, after all; no need to wake him up.

The two girls heard the sound of someone clearing their throats very audibly and it rattled them badly as they turned to face the instigator. It was Shikamaru, and he regarded them with interest. "Mornin' you two."

"Shikamaru?" Hinata felt a blush creep from the top of her head right down to her very toes. "How long have you been awake?"

"Ever since Tenten came in and brushed across my ninja-wire tied to my hand and yanked it, waking me up," Shikamaru said in all seriousness, making Tenten face-palm herself, recalling the sound of movement. "I saw and heard everything."

"Aw geez." Tenten cursed under her breath. "Well?"

"Calm down, you lovebirds. Damn, love is so troublesome, I don't care if I die a hermit if it's going to be so damn complicated. I just wanted you to know that Naruto has something that's probably for Hinata in a seal in the dresser. Don't forget to lock the window when you leave; you're letting in a cold draft." With that, the pineapple-headed youth just went back to sleep, muttering 'mendōkusei' as he did.

"What just happened?" Tenten puzzled as she turned to face the Hyuuga. "Anyway, Hinata, are you going to check out-" She sweat-dropped as she realized that she was already at the dresser and was already removing the seal. "Um…Hinata? Don't you think you should wait to see if he gives it to you or not?"

The blunette looked like she very badly wanted to see what was inside. "But even if I don't, I'll just stress about what it could be?"

Tenten shook her head as she got up and wrested it from her. "No. It'll be way more special if he gives it to you. Let's just go back to our room before we get caught."

Hinata stood there for a long while before finally relenting. "Alright. Let's go." Hinata put the seal back and was first to exit back through the window. "Are you coming?" She whispered.

"Coming." Tenten waited until she was sure Hinata was out of sight before taking out the seal again and unsealed it's contents. In a puff of smoke, the items were relinquished in her palm and Tenten felt mixed emotions about what it was.

It was a gift; a marvelous bouquet of purple and white lilies with lavender gracing all around the edges. In the very center, a single red rose was set for all to see. The plastic that had wrapped everything together was nothing to sneeze at either, as it appeared to be of the best degree and patterned with the words 'ALL FOR HER'. Attached to it was a card and Tenten needed no encouragement to open it. It was simple, it was profound, it was…a haiku.

 _Thanks, Hinata-hime,_

 _I feel very much honored._

 _Hope to love you too._

Tenten let a single tear fall as she sealed everything back and placed it all where she found it. Without a word, she crept back to the window and was about to leave when she turned to gaze at Naruto's sleeping form.

'It feels like I just gave away the best thing in my life.'

And that was all as the window was closed and all was normal again in the night, save for a distant scream that if anyone heard, tried to ignore…

 **And that's it. After a whole year, we finally have a beginning for to start some fluff for Naru-Hina. Yeah yeah, you can try to lynch me and all that. Just tell me what you thought!**

 **1- Obviously a fourth-wall breaking example of the story being a year old, and as such, how long Naruto has been oblivious of Hinata's feelings.**

 **2- Obviously a fourth-wall break that hints to the fact that a (writer) is controlling Naruto's life.**

 **3- Hey, it's a rule of mine. If you don't like the barber and he doesn't like you, don't sit in his chair and the guy has a razor. Best case scenario, you get a buzz haircut that gets you heaps of socially crass insults or worst case scenario, you get your throat slit.**

 **[Also, as a side note, I don't know how many of you know or care, the Kickass Torrents website owner got arrested. If you use the site, then you know that kat . cr isn't working. A new mirror website is up (they're trying) and it's kat . am. (Just remove the spaces between the dot and the words.) Once there, could you just sign the petition? I'm just doing my part of advertising the petition. I mean come on, doesn't the governments of the world have better things to do than trying to shut down torrent websites? Feeding people, ending bias on social classes, education, healthcare and what not? Come on.]**

 **Anyway, that's it. Sorry for the late chappie and all. It was just sitting at 5k for the longest while, and in the meantime I kept going back to updating other fics. It wasn't writer's block, it's more like Living Twice held a wee bit more interest with the phenomenons I had going on over there.**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **The Epc Wn, MRAY 4 THE WIN, MRAY 4TW, whichever and whatever.**


	36. Chapter 36

**Breaking Limits**

 **...**

…

… **(Awkward silence)**

 **Disclaimer: (Crickets chirp while a hastily erected, half-assed sign is displayed: 'MRAY 4TW does not own Naruto')**

 **36.**

"Um, Hinata-chan? Wanna walk with me?"

It was a particularly cool morning. The weather was slightly cloudy, but only over where the sun shone on the town. The grass and the flowers among them swayed on either side of the path, obviously by the wind's influence. The weather was perfect. The atmosphere…it was decent. Perhaps it could have been because of Naruto's stammering from time to time.

They were clad in their typical shinobi wear as the mission demanded, but nothing was shinobi-like about how the two were carrying on. It was more like two tweens, very nerdish in fact; one who offhandedly told her other that she had feelings for him, and the guy who didn't know how to react.

"I, uh, didn't know you felt that way about me, Hinata-chan. To be honest, I haven't even given much thought into relationships. It's always felt like the most I would ever have are a few friends and a cheap tombstone by the time everything was said and done. I'm just… _me_."

"You're you," she affirmed with a small smile. "And that's what I love the most."

"You love me for who I am? For what I am? For what I will be?"

"What do you mean?" She nearly frowned. She had a feeling where he was carrying this conversation, but she wouldn't allow him to take this tangent too far.

"I'm…a jinchuriki, for Kami's sake. You know about Kyuubi. You know, 'demon fox'. I'm practically cursed by typical standards." He argued.

"You told me about him. Have you forgotten that he spoke to us in Nami no Kuni? He was…blunt. A bit like you, or you like him. Whichever. Besides," she stopped walking and he did too, allowing her to cup his cheek with her left hand. "I should thank him. No doubt it was his influence that gave you those whisker-marks. They look good on you, and that's actually an understatement."

He said nothing for a while as they resumed walking. "You basically have princess status in the village, since you're the heiress of the largest and currently most powerful clan in the village. Status, money, veto in authority, why waste your affection on me?" He asked testily.

"You're worth it, Naruto-kun. I just hope that I'm worthy of yours."

"I have nothing to offer. You already have all that you need!" He exclaimed suddenly. She didn't flinch, but to look him in the eyes regardless of the fact that he started having a wilder look in his.

"My material possessions and status intimidate you, Naruto-kun? Is that the reason why-"

"That's most of the reason," he admitted.

"My parents…" Hinata looked away for a bit before turning back to him. "Told me that I could pursue relationships outside of with those of my clan, even to the point of marriage."

"So they're understanding. That's alright of a set of parents from a stiff-necked clan, no offense." He wasn't too sure where she was carrying this conversation. Absentmindedly, he could swear that he could hear something like a mass of people cheering 'Naru-Hina' faintly. It was surely a lot of people, but it was faint as if coming from very far off. **(1)**

"At the expense of all I have in my clan. Heiress status, inheritances, all of which I have to speak of."

"…" His lower jaw dropped. "But…is it because it's me? You really shouldn't then…"

"And they knew that it was for you I had feelings for, but didn't mind. They admitted that would have applied for anyone I chose. They bear no ill feeling for you. In fact, both speak highly of you."

"I daresay that I don't know why, but I won't complain."

"There's nothing to complain about, Naruto-kun. I've made it clear that nothing you have or do bothers me, that I'm willing to forego all I have to be with you. Will you not let me in? To at least give a relationship between us a chance?"

"Are you sure that what you have going on is some kind of infatuation or-…" He rambled on and stammered, and Hinata could practically hear again what the Kyuubi had said so long ago back in Wave.  
And so she did.

Her byakugan flared into activation and she promptly dropped her personality for a more dominating one; she grabbed Naruto's collar and upper-shirt in both of her hands in a firm grip to bring her closer to him. He was caught completely off-guard, as not even 'Reflex' had kicked in as she shook him back and forth while he faltered in fear.

"I! **LOVE**! YOU!" She yelled into his face at full volume, making him flinch in fear. "NOW **TAKE** **ME** ON A **DATE**!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

"I will!" He exclaimed his answer in fear, his hands held half-up to try to try and placate her but she'd have none of it. "I will, I will! Geez! Don't kill me!"

"YOU'll DO IT, AND YOU'LL LIKE IT! OR SO HELP ME, I'M GONNA-!"

"I'll do it! I promise, dattebayo!" He started weeping anime tears as she clenched him in a tight hug, crying gleefully.

"I knew you'd come around!"

His tears increased while he sweat-dropped. "Does it have to be-"

" **TONIGHT!** "

'Oh sweet mercy of Kami, please spare me!' He could hear the cheering again, and something about it let him know that whichever faction had been doing it was now pleased as they now chanted the cheer.

'NA-RU-HI-NA! NA-RU-HI-NA! NA-RU-HI-NA!'

All Naruto could do was hope that he'd survive the night.

 **=X=X=**

Tenten cautiously opened the door and entered. All she could see was only one occupant. All the others had left, no doubt to do what they pleased for the first part of the morning while the sole person stayed. He was recuperating, that was sure, but he could have been brooding as well.

"Hey Neji. How're you doing?"

No answer.

"Neji?" She tried again.

"Go away."

She sighed. This was a new side of him. Then again, she'd never seen him hurt before. To have gone through that much damage had to have raised the bar of his tolerance of pain by a steep amount. "I'm not taunting or anything. I'm just checking up on my teammate. Can't I do that?'"

She spoke as she walked slowly to the person seated at the desk in front of the window. The closer she got, the more trepidation grew in her until finally she was close enough to rest a hand on his shoulder. She didn't stop, as she was determined to show that she wasn't afraid of his tone, or of him for that matter. She finally stopped at his side, and from there she could see that his head was bandaged.

"I didn't know you had such a big chip on your shoulder for both me and Hinata. What did I ever do to you? What did Hinata do to you?"

"It's none of your concern."

"It is my concern!" She exploded while she held up her hands. "My hands are now scarred from your chakra burning them! It's my concern if you were so dead-set on trying to kill Naruto-kun yesterday! It's one thing to spar, but nothing happened yesterday that anyone would call it that!"

"I knew him from before. I've seen him…he's acting as if he's someone, when we all know he's nothing. Just a clanless orphan playing ninja."

She could feel her blood pressure rising to new heights. "Then what am I? What is Lee? What is Sasuke, even? We're all orphans without a clan! That didn't stop any of us from becoming good ninjas!"

"Sasuke lost his parents after his mentality was instilled to become a ninja. You two were civilian born. You two weren't meant to be ninjas. You're both failures." He whispered plainly. "There's no denying fate."

"If fate is real, who's to say that you know what fate is? You called him a failure, and you got your ass kicked by him…he used only taijutsu to beat a so-called genius, a prodigy, of the _Hyuugas_. I can't help but wonder what you feel like," she mocked. "Oh wait...I know, you feel like _shit_. Welcome to the Failure Club. It's very exclusive, so don't take your membership for granted!"

"Is this a joke to you?" He turned and glared at his teammate. She could now see what a mess he was; Naruto had really done a number on him, given from the cuts, bruises, swelling and discolored welts.

"You're reading a bit too much into this. Did you expect to just enter life and win every fight, make no mistakes?" She folded her arms, waiting on his response. He had none for that, but tried to defend himself.

"He used a cheap-shot with _dirt_. The swine shows himself as what he is."

"You were using the _Jyuuken_ , as in a chakra-aided taijutsu style. He was using his _bare_ fists. I think that was fair…in fact, I'll bet that if he had used Ninjutsu, he'd have beaten you even quicker."

"I'm sure that he wouldn't. Fate would have made me prevail."

"Fate this, fate that." The Higurashi rolled her eyes. "You're starting to really worry me. And that's coming from a girl who needed serious psychological help." Her eyes widened now, as she suddenly realized the issue. "Oh damn. I see now. You're not talking about fate. You're arguing with it. As in not agreeing with it." All of a sudden, things made sense. Why he spoke the way he did. "You're pissed at fate, and have it on the forefront of your mind that it owes you…that it owes you the best of everything that you get and do."

The boy didn't reply; his lack of a response only added credit that she was correct. "The people you fight and win against…you covet them for what they have, and decide that it's both fate rewarding you victory against them, as well as fate punishing them with a loss because they must have had it 'too good for too long'. But why? Why hold a grudge against Hinata? Why bitter at Naruto-kun, Lee and me? None of us did anything to you, much less try to upset you."

"You've always believed that you've had it hard. You've never even once had to live, knowing that your life's only purpose was to serve-"

"At least you have life. I can think of a lot of people who'd want that…they're all dead. Give thanks for what you've got," she interrupted, speaking with a thoughtful look on her face. "You've got food, a family, house, clothes on your back-"

"None is mine. It's all being held in the name of the main branch." He said simply.

"You have _clothes_ ," Tenten said sternly. "You don't have to wear one suit of clothes, wash it, and go almost naked waiting for it to dry before putting it back on. You have a _house_. You don't have to go home, more than once, only to find that it's been razed to the ground. You have _food_. You don't have to hunt about in the streets, wondering when you're going to find your next scrap to eat. You have your _sanity_!" She yelled now. "You didn't have to go through months of psychological rehabilitation and head-peeping doctors being skeptical if you're sane or not! You have…" Her tone lost almost all of its volume as she whispered. " _Parents_. Those that love you, take care of you, kiss you on the cheek and wave goodbye to you when you leave your house in the morning and ask how your day went when you return home. Parents…" she let only one tear fall before she swiped it away in frustration. "Parents you didn't have to watch get butchered no more than two feet in front of you, their blood splashing on your face. So I don't want to hear your 'poor me' bullshit and just suck it up. The next time you get tempted to think that you have it bad, just know that us failures…even me…have had it ten times worse."

With that said, she turned on her heel and walked out briskly, leaving the sealed Hyuuga to stew in his own thoughts. On her way out, she couldn't help but wonder what was going to become of her teammate…and what would have become of her had it not been for Naruto.

As she closed the door behind her, her mind kept going back to that night when she as a passing favor helped a blond boy with his bag, and he repaid it by saving her life. Maybe it was the circle of living. Doing unto others what you'd want them to do unto you.

Maybe she took things for granted too. Maybe she took _him_ for granted.

Did it matter now? She'd given her chance to Hinata.

Hopefully the circle of deeds would come back and repay the favor.

 **=X=X=**

Asuma took up the small bag and peered into it. Did you see him do it Gai?

The Taijutsu-specialist shook his head. "I saw only when it was thrown in. Sometime after twelve in the morning, perhaps before one a.m.."

"Gai?" Asuma put the bag down on his dresser to start pulling on his proper shinobi clothing for the day.

"Yes?"

"There is A LOT of money in that bag. Ryo Bills of the highest order. And there was a note on top that said 'Use what's need, donate the rest'."

Gai felt that a yell of Naruto's youthfulness was in order, but decided not to. "Naruto gives a lot more than he gets. How does he manage a thing like that?"

"He's survived on so little," Asuma responded, feeling a tad guilty about how everyone in the Leaf, he himself included, had done little or nothing to help him. "He finds it easy to give any sort of surplus he gets. The Yondaime was a bit like that, too. Similarities are uncanny, they are."

All Gai could do was nod in agreement. But certain questions needed to be asked. "But where and how did he get the money? I've never known him to steal-"

"Maybe it's those Iwa ninja's bounties. Anyway, I'm not going to question it. So long as you don't hear about a theft…" He paused, knowing that the town was a corrupt cesspool, crime rampant. "A _large_ theft of money, I'm not going to call him out on it. In fact, I'm just going to say that we were sponsored by someone affected by. That should motivate the genin to work harder; knowing they're being fed by some fellow's money who wants to see these creatures dead. Mess with their consciences."

A pounding came at the door now and without preface, the knocker barged in; the door hadn't been locked. The person was revealed to be the messenger from yesterday.

"Shōmō-sama has been murdered!"

 **=X=X=**

"Everyone here?!" Asuma yelled for role-call. He heard varied answers and saw that all was present, sans Neji. That made sense. Let him stay recuperating for a bit more-…a knockout like the one he got gave him a concussion, and he'd be lucky not to develop brain damage and become retarded.

"Alright! We all know that despicable and carnivorous creatures are doing this! Trackers, get to work! I want all evidence presented, and a path pointed out to where they went!" He shouted to them all before turning to the lawmen. "Any witnesses?"

"There's one this time. A guard for a local bank; trustworthy fellow. The guy's shaken up, we can't get him to talk coherently. Poor guy, he had to break into a woman's house nearby to hide." The lawman shifted uncomfortably while twitching his nose in disgust. The smell of drying blood was almost as strong as when it was freshly spilled.

"He's got a right to be," Ino overheard and offered her input while grimacing. "The whole corner's a mess, blood, fabric and some papers all over."

"Stow your bellyaching, Ino. Get to work. Go find out what Shika can piece together," he shooed her verbally, making her hurry to her teammate while he turned back to the man. "A guard? Any reason he was passing through the area at the time? I have reason to believe that this took place at two in the morning." 'That's when Gai said he heard the scream. In fact, I don't think he slept much last night.'

"It is. Let him tell you."

Said guard was sitting on a bench close by when Asuma spotted him. "Hey. How're you feeling?" He spoke casually to get on the man's good nerves as best as possible to get him to open up about what he saw.

The man only looked at the jounin as if looking right through him. He shook his head, and Asuma took that as a bad sign. After trying for a few minutes and the man still wasn't speaking none too proper, the Sarutobi gave up. While the genin was finding all sorts of evidence, they needed testimony from someone to connect all the dots. Why was one fabric so expensive and colorful and the other so black and cheap? What kind of papers where they? The blood had soiled seemingly all the good parts. And why was an important official in this seedy part of town so late at night?

Suddenly, the man's eyes widened as he stared past the jounin. "Huh. It's that kid from yesterday."

Asuma looked over his shoulder to look at whomever he was speaking about. "The boy with the dog? Or the girl with the pink hair?"

"No. The blond one. The boy. He came to the bank yesterday to 'get some currency'. He even gave me some cash to buy a weapon to defend myself." The man got angrier all of a sudden. "I wish I hadn't gone and wasted my money on a cutlass; if I'd 'ave known that it was beasts like the ones like last night killing people…Damn! This place really is cursed!"

Sarutobi knew that the man was making some sense now. But it came to him that since he had established contact with the blond ('small world', he thought,) he should talk with him. Maybe he'd even have far better luck than himself talking to the man, seeing as how he became talkative when and where the Uzumaki was involved. "How about I call him over? Wanna talk with him?"

"Sure, why not," the guard answered with a shrugging vibe. "I don't mind."

Asuma rotated fully and waved. "Yo, Naruto! A minute, I need you over here!"

"Hmm?" Naruto looked up. "I'll be right over." He tore himself from Hinata's company and approached the two men to one side. "Yeah? Oh, I remember you. The guard from yesterday." He looked at the man's waist and saw a cutlass hanging from it in a case. "So you got a 'wep' after all, huh?"

"It wouldn't 'ave done anything against what **I saw**!" The man exclaimed. "They were five of 'em! Two really big ones, half the size of houses and the three smaller ones like horses."

Naruto turned to Asuma, but got only a nod from the man as he walked away. He must've passed the responsibility to him to get information; he didn't question it, he only obliged. "What did they look like?"

"In the night? I'd say they look like dogs. Maybe demon dogs is more like it," the man muttered. "I work afternoons right back to the first half of the night. I had gone out at six in the evening to hurry and buy a cutlass at the hardware store and came back to watch the bank for the first half of the night shift. Shōmō-sama had passed by at the bank and he asked me as I changed shifts to follow him home; he must've wanted a guard. It was the graveyard hour, so all I wanted was to go home. But he's authority, second only to Mayor Risaikuru-sama so he wasn't really asking me; it was veto and I had to oblige. He fetched his briefcase, and things, then we left the bank. So we were walking, and as we reached this corner, I saw a lady of the night. She was wearing some skimpy clothing, standing at the corner under a streetlight. When he reached her, he stopped. I asked him why he was stopping, but listen, I'm paraphrasing but he said some very colorful language, translating that I should scram. It looked like he was buying time, and wanted privacy to do what he wanted. A real prick, I'd say. He could've just said a 'thank you', but no. I can respect a man's privacy, but he was being an asshole about it. I looked down on things like that, so I decided to just leave him alone."

"Buying time?" Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"The woman's a hooker."

"So after that, then what?" Naruto pressed.

As I was about to walk past to go home me'self, it felt like the place was getting darker. The streetlight was still on, but I swear, it's like the light was on, but it just wasn't lighting up the place. Or maybe the surroundings itself became darker, I dunno. It got harder to see, and then I started hearing some kind of cackling. Like someone's laughing in a maniac-kind-of-merry, y'know?"

"No. Can I get a better description?"

"Ever met someone who just loves seeing you in pain? You're a kid; I bet you've met a bully or two. Nothing can sound like what the laughing sounds like, I'm just telling you the vibe it gave off; like someone who loves seeing people hurt."

"I can think of quite a few," Naruto murmured as he looked off in the direction of Konoha, recalling his own past. "Then what?"

The voices doing the laughing...they start yelling and screaming all kinds of messed up shit. Things like 'Waste!' 'Decimate!' and joining those two words like 'Decimate waste!' 'Devastate!' Shit like that."

"Basically, they were yelling about destruction." 'But why say the destruction of waste?' Naruto wondered. "What next, friend?"

"Well, you know the answer, don't you? Shōmō and the whore got butchered. I had the pleasure of slashing willy-nilly with my cutlass, half-pissing myself before breaking into a woman's house to hide."

Naruto could be empathetic to the man. But he needed more specifics. "What did they do to Shōmō and the woman?" He already could tell that they were murdered, but how? Why? What manner?

"They fuckin' got eaten. Not a single bit of 'em went to waste, if you ask me. I was praying to Kami that they'd leave me alone, but it was like they didn't care for me. I even cut one badly with the cutlass before I dusted out, but it's like they decided I wasn't worth their attention." The man shivered. "I've never felt better in my life to be ignored."

Naruto sat by the big man on the bench. "Don't you worry. We'll get 'em. Soon, this will only be like a forgotten nightmare."

"I'm still hoping that I'm gonna wake up. Take care of yourself."

…

…

…

Asuma was soon told all he had garnered from the witness. "Like dogs, huh? Naruto, I hear you're pretty smart. You've said so on multiple occasions. Even Kurenai said you claimed to have a brain the size of Iron country. What can you make of this?"

"I have a theory," Naruto said slowly, pondering if his Insight ability could assist him in this endeavor. "I'm going to need to talk with Shikamaru, Kiba, Shino and…" He thought some more. "Hmm…just those three. Come to think of it, why'd you ask me first?"

"Naruto…" Asuma looked up and at the bloody scene.

"Yeah, Asuma-sensei?"

"This is…hard for me to admit it," the Sarutobi obviously said with a hesitate. 'But do whatever you need to do, and make sure that the mission doesn't elevate to an S ranked one. Kurenai calls it a curse because of your involvement in missions, but it's starting to feel like it's your involvement is what's getting it done."

Naruto smiled to himself. He felt…acknowledged. "Aye, aye, sir!" He exclaimed with a mock salute, making the older man grin.

…

…

…

"Why'd you call us, Naruto?" Kiba frowned. "Wass'up this this time?"

"I need you three guys in order to piece something together. Did Akamaru smell the creatures that did this in the area?"

"No. But he did say that he got spooked. The whole area felt _unsafe_ to him. As if he was in a bigger dog's territory, y'know?" He fidgeted as he spoke. "I felt it too."

"…" Naruto nodded grimly. "As I thought. I didn't get intimidated though, but I could feel the sense that I was standing in a creature's territory. I was hoping that maybe they marked it, and you could track them."

"Not a scent, except for blood. I can't even try to track by blood, because it's practically normal as soon as you get off scene."

"There's not even any footprints?" Shino asked. "I've hunted for them, and surely, not even tracks of animals capable of eating people without leaving a bone on the spot should have left paw or even claw tracks on the ground. It's like they flew away."

"I've been told that the creatures could be modeled after dogs," Naruto reminded. "They don't have wings. So unless they've mastered walking on air, that's not going to work. Shikamaru? I know you saw something on the ground. What was it?"

The Nara sighed as he fished for his evidence collected. "It was a document. Most of it was bloodied, but it was a document penning the transfer of money, from what I could make out. But I can't tell how much, or from who to who."

"Hey, Shino. Since you're kikaichu have been known to chew right through arteries and such, they should have something on their body to allow blood to slick off easily so that they can continue to fly, huh? Like birds with natural oils?"

"They do. They secrete special anti-coagulants to avoid having blood dry on them. You wish for me to use their anti-coagulants on the dried blood, hoping that the blood will be able to drain off? But then, how will it be cleaned?"

"We only need to see through it to the other side to be able to read the words. I'll need a lighter. Kiba, can you get Asuma's?"

"Sure, why not." The Inuzuka heaved himself up and left from the shade of the oversized tarpaulin while Naruto fetched a basin for the document.

"Why didn't you send me? I'm closer to Asuma-sensei since I'm on the his team, you know?" Shikamaru sighed.

"Would you have gone to get his lighter if I had asked you?"

"…"

"…"

"Good point."

…

…

…

One half-clean sheet of paper later, Naruto held the lighter behind it while the boys gathered behind and beside him. "What does it say?" Kiba asked eagerly.

"Just as I expected." Naruto sighed. "Shōmō was embezzling money from the town's treasury."

"Huh?"

"He was stealing money from his peoples' taxes." Shino deadpanned.

"Oh. Well, why didn't you say that before?" Kiba asked as he led the way back to the group at the scene. "Now what?"

"Insight, Kiba. Now, I need Insight."

…

…

…

"Alright, it looks like he's coming back with the boys, Sakura."

"What do you think they're going to contribute? Shikamaru's supposed to be smart, Shino's supposed to be well rounded, Kiba's an Inuzuka tracker and Naruto…it's like I don't know him anymore," the Haruno remarked thoughtfully. "He even beat Neji with only taijutsu. Yeah, he used dirt and all, but, that shouldn't have fazed a guy with the Byakugan. I heard from Lee that no one had ever beaten Neji before."

Ino only stared at her friend, deciding that a mandatory statement needed to be said. "But still not strong enough to beat Sasuke-kun."

"Of course not, Ino," Sakura answered in a retort, although it was in agreement and affirmation. "Now shush, they're here. Maybe they've got something useful."

They two of them strafed close by, hoping to hear whatever made the boys and the jounin have to whisper, but all too soon, they stopped talking, much to their disappointment. Shortly after, Naruto shaded his eyes with his hand, as if from the sun, but Sakura could see that his eyes looked different, not from shade, but as if they became black. As she studied the Uzumaki, she could finally make out the pattern to memorize it, and realized that the blond might really have had a dojutsu after all.

But what kind? She had never seen it before in her life. She decided to keep that tidbit of knowledge to herself. This morning, Naruto had insisted that they were contact lenses that he wore to intimidate people, but she saw him 'activate' it. Why would he hide it? Furthermore, how and where did he get it?

It looked like there was more to him that met the eye…bad pun intended.

…

…

…

Naruto activated Insight and looked around the scene. Almost everything came out in a silver color, as the crime scene was everything a ninja should be wary and careful around. Soon, silver disappeared around most things, leaving only silver around a particular blood stain on the wall. Looking back to where the people had been slain, he easily deduced that no blood spatter from the people should have reached so far.

It was chance exceeding 500:1, or so Insight told him.

He dabbed his finger into it, but it was still dry. 'Maybe it's the creatures' blood; perhaps they brushed against the wall. The guard claimed to have cut them with his cutlass, but this is the only bloodstain that lit up in gray. What else?' He peered around, hoping to find a bigger clue. He had the bulk of it already, but nothing concrete.

He shut off his Insight and turned back to face everyone, only to find that they were staring at him, Sakura in distinct. "What?" He hoped none of them had seen his dojutsu; he had hidden it as if he was shading his eyes from the sun.

"Nothing," Sakura said hurriedly. "Did you find anything _interesting_?"

He didn't know why she drew that word out, but decided to ignore it. "No, not really. But I can't really say anything unless I have something more solid to talk about. And there's no way to get evidence without having a casualty."

"Well, so what do we do, then?" Ino asked worriedly. "Just wait until more people die?"

"Don't worry, Ino!" Naruto tried to smiled it off, hoping that he wasn't worrying anyone. "If I'm right, then good people have nothing to worry about. Enough said."

 **=X=X=**

"Um…Hinata-chan, I don't think we should go out tonight. Can't it wait 'till after the creatures are killed, or at least _stopped_? It's dangerous out at night. You know what they're capable of."

She looked up, eyes wide in mock-surprise. "The Naruto Uzumaki _afraid_? What'll happen next?"

"Girls wearing 'the pants' in relationships," the blond mumbled under his breath.

"What was that?"

Knowing that he was far from capable of lying, he chose to forgo that question. "I'm not afraid. Well, yes, I am afraid. Afraid that something might happen to you. Besides, business places will close early, so the owners can get home before dark."

"We'll go out at five."

Naruto sighed. "This is so sudden."

"Is that why you're hesitant?" She raised an eyebrow in parallel with her question, all the while wondering what his reasons were. She really wanted this.

"In truth, I'm actually more afraid to go on this date. I don't know what to do. I'm been nothing more than an orphan chased away by eating establishments except for Old Man Ichiraku's. So of course it's going to be awkward. I don't even know what to wear, how to eat the 'fancier foods' that isn't ramen and all that." He glanced at her and saw her eyebrow ticking a bit. "Was I talking all of that out loud?"

"You were."

"I'll…come for you at a quarter before five. But since we don't have any going-out clothes since we came on mission-"

"The clothes are we have now's fine. It's just a first date, mostly getting to know one another better. It'll be fine."

…

…

…

"I'm gonna **mess** this whole thing up!" Naruto yelled through clenched teeth while yanking on his hair.

He was stretched out on his mattress while Tenten sat in the chair next to him, her hands folded under her chin while she nodded. "Mm hmm, mm hmm…go on."

"I'm gonna **fail**!"

"Mm hmm, mm hmm…go on."

"This is going to turn into a gigantic **shit-show**!"

"Interesting… Now tell me, how does this make _you_ feel?" She asked, akin to typical psychiatrist's manner.

"I feel like I'm gonna make a titanic fool of myself, maybe swallow my chopsticks on purpose, or trip over my own feet before bursting into flames!" Naruto yelled. He turned to where Tenten was seated with one foot angled over another. "What do I do, doc?!"

"Your case seems desperate…" She began.

"It is!" He shouted.

"Normally, I prescribe patients a two-to-three dosage of the drug 'Getagrip' to ease their stress, but it would appear that you're going to need something more potent."

He scrambled of his mattress and stood up to face her as she got to her feet as well. "Really?! What's it called?"

"It's called 'Calmthefuckdown'."

"Doc, that sounds foreign. Are you sure it's the one for me?"

"It's good for anyone stressing out over a date." She assured.

"Well, administer it, then! I need it!"

She needed no further prompting as she grabbed a hold of his shirt and started slapping him across the face repeatedly back and forth, punctuating each one with a word. "CALM! (Slap)... THE! (Slap)... FUCK! (Slap)... DOWN! (Slap)  
After that, she went full bedlam for another five seconds before the last one knocked him flat. "Got it?!"

His cheeks were badly reddened with handprints as he got back up. "Wow! I think it's working! Is the dreadful pain in my face a side-effect?"

"Why, yes it is! Glad to help!" She grinned at this, but it soon fell into a sad-looking smile as she helped him up and walked him to the mirror hanging over the dresser, knowing that she would soon lose him to someone else. "But seriously, Naruto-kun, it'll be okay. Hinata and I talked. She's not expecting anything much, she just wants to start off real easy." She rolled her eyes as she picked up a brush off the dresser and started brushing his hair while he listened. "If we had been back in Konoha, it probably would have been a different story. Wining and dining, flirting and whatnot. Then the money you'd have to spend." She shook her head. "Oh boy, I think you're making some money now, but as far as I'm concerned, you're still as broke financially as…well, Konoha a few years ago."

"I've got the coin. And besides, I'm sure that if she was after money, she would have just dated another guy's wallet. There must be a reason why she'd want to date…" He gestured to himself. " _This_."

He didn't say it in a narcissistic manner…he almost said it with a grimace. He was either humiliating himself, or humbling himself to dust. There wasn't a difference between the two at all, really.

"You're a swell guy. Besides, if not you, then who? Who do you think would go great as a guy to hold her by the arm, huh?"

"Um…well, I don't know anyone of us, but maybe there's a guy in the village? Maybe?" He asked pathetically. "Damn, I think the drug's wearing off already."

The weapon's mistress couldn't help but laugh. "Classic Naruto. Fights baddies day and night and still loses his head when a pretty girl starts talking to him." She stopped brushing now, as he looked to her cheekily.

"Huh…would you look at that." He felt his head and pretended to check its stability. "I'm talking to you, and I still have my head on."

Her mind was beginning to process what he was saying, and it was hard to interpret what he was saying…he was either complimenting her, or calling her…unattractive.

"Did you just call me **ugly**?!" She yelled loudly while her eyebrow nearly ticked off of her face, brandishing a clenched fist.

"No, no, no!" He was suddenly afraid for the second time that day. What about women could it be that was so intimidating? "I'm calling _you pretty_!"

She calmed down instantly. "Huh…oh. Thanks, I guess." Her cheeks painted a bit but it soon fled as she frowned. "You're about as well socialized as…as…" She trailed off in her description as he gazed at her, waiting. "I can't describe it. You're the new measuring stick for anti-socialism."

He became dejected. "Why? Because I complimented you?"

Tenten sighed. "It's complicated. Since you're going to be dating now, you're going to want to be as pla-"

She was about to say 'platonic as possible to other girls besides Hinata', but a new thought came to her; a bad one. Naruto was like clay. She had a feeling that she could tell him any advice and he'd listen. Anything; mold him into anyone she'd want him to be because he'd listen to her and take anything she said to heart. Perhaps she could even get him to upset Hinata, and then when she was over him because of that, she'd just dust Naruto off and take him as her own. Simple? Yes. Despicable? Yes. Would it work? Most likely. How many people would it piss off? Almost everyone in the female population except for her if she played her cards right.

"As player-like as possible," she finished with a rather devious smile.

"Huh? What does that mean?" He asked curiously. Well, he was about to find out as she started to explain.

"See a pretty girl? Tell her that you like her ass and pinch it. Hard. Do it to every girl. They love that," she gestured here and there while she told him, and his eyes widened more and more as she spoke. "And a lot of women like it when men touch their breasts during dinner. It helps to start a conversation. Best way to stay on every girl's good side."

She hadn't even finished explaining when she felt his hands plant securely on where her breasts were starting to come in. Sure, she was a late bloomer in terms of size, but damn, that didn't mean she didn't feel his hands practically groping her by them.

"Yipe!" She instantly folded her arms over them as quick as a blink as her face heated to supernova proportions. She turned away from him speedily to face away from him, but as soon as she did, she felt a pair of fingers pinch her left butt-cheek roughly and she was sure he slightly tugged on the flesh below her fabric while doing so. She yelped again as she leapt away from him, watching him to make sure he didn't do anything more.

It hadn't even five seconds properly into her plan, and **she** felt liked she was practically _raped_. She quickly got over it, realizing that it was because of her doing. 'Suck it up, Tenten.'

"I like your ass. So, how'd I do?" He asked innocently.

She felt like yelling her lungs out at him while pinching _his_ ass to challenge him if _he_ liked it, but decided not to. She gave two shaky thumbs up while grinning lopsidedly. " _You did great_." She drawled shakily.

"Thanks! What next?"

She steeled herself, hoping to just finish the plan and be done with it. "Uh huh. For every girl you meet, tell 'em they look fat."

"Why?"

"You see, girls don't really eat that much mostly. They don't have the appetite. So since they're so slim and thin most of the time, they like to feel like they've put on some weight. That their healthier, but in a good way." She hoped her lie was plausible enough to be believed, and luckily, he bought it.

"Tenten? You look fatter. Looks like you've been eating more than your usual amount. Like that, right?" He asked hopefully.

She gave him a deadpan look. She knew how slim she was, almost to the point of being thin. And she was an **eater**. She knew **that** very well. So she couldn't take him seriously at all. "Yeah. Just like that. And don't forget to be brutally honest about a girl's faults. Like a girl's breasts, and body sizes and whatnot. Girls love it when a guy can be real with them like that."

"Thanks a lot, Tenten!" He was about to charge through the door, ecstatic. "You're a lifesaver! I owe you one!"

There he was, about to leave. The best guy she had ever had in her life, of the best ideals and morality she had ever known, about to leave and turn into a 'GRADE A+ DOUCHEBAG' to women. She knew how blunt he could be, and if he wasn't smeared as a bloodstain under a girl's fist within the next hour, he'd be the luckiest guy on earth.

But still, he'd be hers for the taking when this all blew over.

 **=X=X=**

"I guess so," she told it. "I've forgiven you. I don't really blame you."

" **I was only trying to escape,"** it spoke again, " **to escape from the man who was trying to seal me, just so he could use me as a battery. He asked me if I wanted to become an asset to him. He dodged most of my techniques, except for a Tailed Beast Bomb, but I didn't try that one. I feared that he would seal me before I could get one off. That's why I was heading to another cavern where I could hide out."**

"So Taki was in your way, then?" She asked the beast.

" **Unfortunately, yes. As everyone knows, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, so since if I couldn't fly because of wing injuries, I bulldozed my way to get to the cavern. It was in a dried up aquifer under a place I think was called Kimyō Town."**

"I remember that name!" Fu said excitedly. "Naruto-kun told me about a mission he had there! A madman nearly sunk the town under there by bombing the ceiling of the aquifer. Naruto-kun killed him though."

" **Naruto-kun, Naruto-kun,"** the Nanabi chanted. **"You like him, don't you?"**

"What's not to like?" She shot back.

"…"

"…"

" **I've never met him. So how should I know?"**

"I've visited with his brothers-" the mint haired girl began, but she was cut off.

" **His** _ **clones**_ **."** Nanabi interrupted with the reminder.

"Clones, yes," she admitted. "But they're flesh and blood. Besides, they mostly act like him, but each of them as far as I've seen developed one emotion or characteristic and wear it on their sleeve. Like one's extremely sarcastic, one's stubborn, one's almost meek and another's bossy. That kind of thing. But still, like him, y'know?"

" **I can well imagine. You did visit them in the Savannah. It's a good thing you don't have to worry about people hounding after you, since your 'handler' Fukira 'mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night.' Hmm…"** The beast suddenly became very thoughtful.

"What?" Fu asked curiously.

" **I wonder if anyone noticed. No one noticed at all."**

"Noticed what?"

" _ **The names**_ **. It's so strange. It's like names prove to be more of a character-definition than anything else. Fu, your name means 'wind' and all, right? Your uncle's name was Fukira, wasn't it? Well, the 'Fu' part means 'wind' and it means** _ **you**_ **in particular, but what does 'Kira' mean?"**

"…It means 'killer'," Fu deadpanned with realization. "And damnitall, if he didn't come close to ending me."

" **And your mother's name. Fugisei. The very same who died to seal me in you. What does 'gisei' mean?"**

Fu had the classic look of realization on her face as she got up to stand. "It means 'sacrifice'. Holy shit; didn't anyone notice? These names are getting a bit…huh. I dunno. Names are powerful, I guess."

" **My name is PooPoo."**

"WHAT?" Fu couldn't believe her ears. The Nanabi had a name? And what kind of retarded name was that?

" **Just kidding!"** The Nanabi chirped. **"My name's Chomei!"**

Fu smiled as she looked up to the gigantic beast in her mindscape. "Nah!" She teased. She held up one palm open to the beast and placed her two fingers from underneath it to rest against the palm; it clearly represented the number 'seven', as in seven fingers. "Your name is 'Lucky 7'!"

"… **I like it. But…Fu, I'm really sorry about your mother, and how…everyone treats you."**

"Kaa-chan did what she had to do to make sure you didn't level Taki, I guess. Not a perfect score on that plan, but I'm over it. And I have friends now, even though there mostly a bunch of clones with diverse personalities created by my first best friend." Fu answered enthusiastically. "But still, why didn't you heal the wounds that I got over the years?"

" **To be honest, I was hoping that you'd have perished,"** Lucky 7 deadpanned, making Fu sweat-drop heavily. **"So I could reform again, and then make my way to hide like I just told you."**

"Who is this guy to make you so scared?" Fu asked. "Should I be?"

" **I don't know if he knows that you are my jinchuriki. But if he does, maybe he's already hounding after you for me. He only wants me as a battery, in the hopes of making himself more powerful."**

"Battery, battery," Fu got annoyed quickly. "For what?"

" **He said something about a Kekkei Genkai that had eight abilities. It was certainly powerful, from the way he was carrying on. But apparently, he couldn't get it. Maybe it's not fully evolved, or unattainable or something of the sort. Maybe he wants to impersonate it, for he mentioned that its original purpose was to master a move only the Yondaime Hokage was capable of doing in the highest degree. I assume impersonate, because the Yondaime's dead, with no heir. If he had had sired a child, then the child was sure to have gotten it. Biju chakra is powerful. I've even heard that people could create abilities from the art of Fuinjutsu, if they were skilled enough in the art. Creating abilities that could even be handed down. If he could get a hold of kin of mine, a Biju or even me, he could most certainly create seals that can grant powers. You see, it's not powers quite like Kekkei Genkai, but they affected mostly how the body works. Change if you had to sleep or not, how you processed information, if you could feel pain or not. Emotions, way of thinking. But you'd need powerful chakra to power the seal once, and it'd serve you for life. If he actually intended to use me as a continual battery, he'd have been significantly more powerful."**

"I understood…most of that," Fu remarked. "Fuinjutsu, huh? Isn't it a dying technique in the ninja arts?"

" **I believe that that same person could be a master of it, or close to one."**

Fu sighed. "I'm not gonna dwell on this, Chomei. It must be getting late."

" **I like our face to face chats,"** the rhinoceros beetle complained.

"Me too. I'm gonna buy something to eat." Fu left the mindscape, and came back to the waking world on her bed. Yawning contentedly, she let herself off the side and looked around. Her room…was one of three in a LARGE cave close by to her shack of a house she had abandoned. She hadn't let anyone seen her exiting her new home, and she was glad she was still unsought after in the village. They hadn't come looking, and she was glad. Her new home was well _furnished_ , stove, bed, couch, even a television and some lighting she had receiving electricity from a noiseless generator in a small room, ventilated out into open air via tubes.

A far better way of living. And all it took was a couple of henges, some gold and outside trading on the boys' (Naruto's brothers) part to get it to her. She got it made right about now, and she took out some money out of a purse she had had changed in from gold and did a flawless henge of her usual disguise of a nondescript middle-aged woman with black hair.

…

…

…

"I want these eight pounds of rice, four pounds of chicken, two pounds of parrot fish, this five-pack of seasoning," she listed them all as they were placed on the counter for the cashier to ring them up. "And these ten flasks of honey."

" **Yay! Yummy honey!"**

'Quiet you,' Fu barked in her mind. 'I blame you for this addiction! So help me, if I ever get Type Two Diabetes, I'm gonna-' She was interrupted by the cashier asking for payment so she paid her.

"Got a sweet tooth, huh?"

"Yeah, me and my kid," Fu answered with a smile. "It's a good sweetener, and a healthy alternative to sugar."

"Don't I know it, lady," the cashier nodded. "Take care."

 **3:00 pm**

"So you're just sticking me with two people I don't even know?" Fu complained to the jounin.

"Shut your mouth. No one asked you!" The bigger boy complained with an air if intimidation, as if hoping to cow her down. That was far from successful…Fu was the strongest physically she knew, as not only had she finally reached tier four with her gravity seal, but Nanabi had finally endowed her with the ability to always increase strength…if she could train to lift it, she'd eventually be able to.

That was how she made the cave where she lived, after all.

So if a guy whose head she could punch off of his body kept mouthing off to her, she might be liable to do just that.

The littler one just sneered at her the whole time but she ignored him as well, waiting for the jounin's answer. "Well," the jounin began, "I'm going to be frank. This team was short a member, and you were _available_. In honesty, you should be grateful. Now you might actually get the chance to rank up to chunin."

'I'm already a chunin by normal standards of a shinobi,' she thought. 'Maybe even more. And these bastards are just using my state of being a sole genin to round off a team.' "Really? A chunin?" She asked enthusiastically, although it was superbly faked. "I can get to be one?"

"If you're worthy of promotion, the panel of Kage and councilors will say so, then Taki will give you the rank. So Taki could still refuse you."

"I guess not," Fu sighed dejectedly. "I'm not gonna get promoted then."

"A lack of skill, most likely," the shorter boy said. "You're not like us."

"I'll never be like you," the jinchuriki retorted. "I'm not biased against, I don't have family, and I'm not soft like _you_."

"I'm gonna-"

"Easy, easy," the jounin sighed. 'Why the hell did I have to get the two brothers? Fu isn't all that bad. A pity the village doesn't see that.' "I don't want any fighting. We haven't even had a chance to train, or get to know each other, or even get to know one another's names."

"I ain't telling her Jack _shit_." The bigger one growled.

"Your name is Jack Shit?" Fu asked in a tone of mock innocence. "Or was it Jack's Shit? Can never really tell when the letter 'S' follows names. You might think there might be an apostrophe there."

"Bitch!" The younger one scream-whispered.

"Stop acting like you're seeing your period, you two," the jounin chastised. "You wanna get your chance to be promoted or not? Now everyone exchange your goddamned names."

"Fu," the girl said easily enough.

"Shiri." The bigger one said reluctantly. The smaller one said 'Ana' rather quietly. As the names turned over in her head, her face fell in a slack-jaw.

'Is it just me, or did Kami just take a dump on me and then let me in on the inside joke? What the hell?! The first one's name translates as 'ass' and the second one translates as 'holes'. Kami, why me?!'

' **Well, I'm sorry for you, Fu. That's messed up. I bet that you can tell how this is going to end up for these two.'**

"Fine, I'll join the team. But why did you need a team so impromptu?" The kunoichi asked the jounin.

"For the upcoming chunin exams."

"Really?" She looked to her forehead, suddenly excited at the thought. Maybe, just maybe, she might get to do some travelling and see new sights, meet new people and make better and more non-discriminate people like Naruto. "Where?"

"In Konohagakure. Anyway, let's run through some basic team exercises. You three are a lot of work." The jounin turned and beckoned over his shoulder. The two boys followed immediately, but it was promptly noticed that Fu was still standing in her spot, having a thousand yard stare. "Fu?"

Fu. exe had stopped responding.

"Fu? Fu!" The jounin yelled.

Suddenly the girl was alive and well again, as she made an enormous leap into the air, flailing her limbs out in celebration. "YATTA!"

 **=X=X=**

It was night in Konoha, as a lone man walked. He was hooded, and for good reason. He didn't belong here, but he felt like he needed to visit someone. It had been far too long.

There was new moon out tonight; there would be no light, and he was grateful. It was so simple to get into the village with his swift release, but he decided to wait until it was dark. Even if he were caught, he decided to just use his baton and knock the (any) witness out. His tanto was always in its sheathe on his back and smiled grimly. Why he fought with such weapons, he had no idea. He just favored the simple things.

But as power was concerned, he wanted…no, needed it. He was unwell, and he was sure that he could prolong his weakening existence. But just in case he didn't make it, he needed to say some goodbyes. In fact, the person who he was visiting was old too, and he smiled as he thought of her. She had tried so hard to with him. He was her mistake, but at least she owned up to her responsibility and took care of him.

Soon, he was at her door, as per the directions he had received by consulting a directory. Why she now lived on the ground floor, he had no idea. She used to, and liked living on upper floors. Made her feel tall. He didn't mind it then either, but-

He knocked on the door, and almost at the same time he heard stirring. "Who is it?"

"It's me, kaa-chan," he answered.

He heard what sounded like frantic hobbling to the door, and it was opened hastily. "Come in!" The old woman muttered urgently.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." He entered at her behest and using his most recently acquired ability, a dojutsu to see in absolute darkness, turned in the light switch and beheld the room. "Hmm…cozy, kaa-chan." He started to turn, but before he did completely, the door was closed and the old woman embraced him.

"Ito! Sochi! It's been so long!"

The man could tell the mirth in her voice was sincere, but he wasn't prepared to take in the sight of a decrepit old woman short one leg and on crutches, as she balanced on him. "Oh Kami…what happened to you?"

"If you had been here to visit with fourteen years, you wouldn't be asking that now!" Koharu accused. "I…lost it in an explosion in a council meeting. An Anbu committed suicide to try and kill the Kyuubi jinchuriki."

"Naruto?" The man asked in surprise after a brief silence.

"You know of him?"

"I **know** him. We almost know each other personally," the man remarked. "He hates me as much as the Kyuubi does. If they could kill me by just thinking it…" The man sighed. "That's not important. I just came to visit, that's all."

She reached up and removed his hood, him allowing her to do it. As she gazed at his disfigured face, she smiled grimly. "Still as ugly as ever. You really didn't get my side when it comes to genes," she said rather affectionately.

"It's not like tou-san's ugly," he reminded. "I wish things were different."

"Me too, son. Me too."

"Kaa-chan?"

"Yes, sochi?" She began trying to put the kettle on the stove, but he took over and did it himself.

"I'm not long for this world."

"Neither am I. But that doesn't mean I want to stay." She remarked in a dead tone. "I'm miserable."

"I can tell. Just in case anything happens…I just wanna say-"

"Don't say it," Koharu started weeping before she brushed off her tears with her sleeve. "Don't say it."

"I love you, kaa-chan. By the way, use my middle name. I'm still exiled from Konoha, and the walls have ears. When you called me in, you basically called every shinobi in the area."

She knew that he wanted to tell her goodbye, and all of a sudden, this felt like a dream, or more like a nightmare. Her only glimpse of her son after more than a decade and he was already leaving. All she was left with was herself, as he blinked out of view, gone, as only as the wind ever could.

"Goodbye, Hanson," Koharu muttered, just before she heard the sounds of murder outside her door, knowing that it was most likely the death of Anbu, or even multiple. "Take care, my son."

 **AN- Good chapter! I think this was a good one, don't you agree? A lot of things happened today, not to mention, reveal of important plot info, and my tendencies with making names as you all know! Tell me what you think!**

 **1 - Fourth wall break. It's** **this** **world that was cheering Naru-Hina. I myself thought it to be funny.**

 **Plot- The Revelation chapter of a plot resolve and analysis will occur soon, but not too soon. It's months away, so make your guesses as you please.**

 **Tenten and Hinata- Well, I have a choice for you all. Let Tenten allow Naruto to turn into an ass in behavior where women are concerned, are stop him. Let me know WHAT YOU WANT! I don't care if it's PMs or reviews or whatever. It's not a massive change to the plot, but it changes this part of the fic for either Romance or for Drama. I couldn't make up my mind. Really. When this happens, I usually flip a coin. I can't find any; you can't flip paper.**

 **That's it, everyone. Thanks for sticking around so long.**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	37. Chapter 37

**Breaking Limits**

 **Recap:  
-Naruto may very well turn into a douche, due to Tenten's jealousy.  
-The Bloodline Thief has familial ties to Koharu. His first name has been revealed as 'Ito', but prefers to go by his middle name 'Hanson'.  
-Fu has become aware of names in the fic, and can translate them for their literal meanings. (This was done just for laughs, but I'm seriously considering making it more…resolute. Not important to the plot, just more staid.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. But the original poetry I own that's posted on this website is currently flagged to be removed. Damn. All those still interested to check 'em out, they'll be up until the end of the week…and then I'm moving them to FictionPress.**

 **37.**

Naruto wore a silly smile on his face as he closed the door behind him. Life was getting better, was his secondary thought, although his primary one was that of what he had learnt. It felt off, but what the hell…Tenten had no reason to lie to him, did she?

He got the feeling that she was lying to him, but he shook it off. They were close. Sure, he had gotten distant ever since he lost most of his cognition, and she had become catatonic and looked after by psychiatrists. But he had always sent something that his meagre allowance could afford to keep on helping the orphanage where she was staying. A bag of sweets here, a bowl of ramen there.

And then there was his other ways of helping. The more effective kind.

Naruto couldn't lie, or at found it extremely difficult. He had reason to believe that it went against his nature to, and the most he could do was tell half-truths, or avoid speaking at all. And his belief was that she didn't lie. After all, women were strange creatures to him; tell him nice things one minute, yell at him the next, act happy 25 or so days a month and harsh for another 3 to 5, so on and so forth.

Well, when he had done it to Tenten, she hadn't acted as if she hated it, so it must've been all right. All she said sounded logical-

"I've gotta stop arguing with myself," the Uzumaki mumbled with himself. "It's one thing to do it with my brothers, but just to myself can't be healthy."

He became resolute with himself that he'd just go with it. Besides, he needed to focus on the date he had with Hinata. He had an idea where to take her, and he had the Hyuuga girl's gift in a seal in his back-pocket.

He traversed the hallway and he and went down the stairs to the girl's room. He knocked at the door and waited patiently; soon, one of the kunoichis inside came to answer the door. It was Ino.

"Naruto? Waddya want?" She asked patiently.

"Oh, hey Ino. Is Hinata-chan in there?" He asked his fellow blond. The girl paused a bit, wondering what the Uzumaki wanted from her, but couldn't possibly fathom what. Of course, this triggered her curiosity to know and a need to find out.

"No. What do you want from her anyway?"

"I'm taking her out-" He started to say, before he remembered who he was talking to. Her face lit up in a huge smile that had a lot of mixed feelings, mostly those that leaked an aura of unbelief, and…relief? "I take it that you know I was going to say, 'to train'?" He tried weakly, but she'd have none of it.

To his surprise, the blond squealed. In fact, it was reminiscent of how she used to do with Sakura over Sasuke whenever he did something 'cool', and he cringed inwardly. "Oh my Kami, you finally noticed!"

"Noticed? Wait…huh?" He scratched his head. "What do you mean, 'noticed'?"

"That you 'noticed'," she mocked using air-quotes, "damn, Naruto! You finally decided to join the real world! Do you know how long everyone back in the academy was wondering how long you'd notice-"

"Aw, damnitall," Naruto growled under his breath. "Every one of you guys knew too? Did everyone know except me?"

"Oh yeah," the Yamanaka replied cheekily with a smirk. "We all knew it's a pity you didn't know back then."

Naruto sighed. Was he really that dense to those sort of things? All of a sudden, he was afraid to know the answer, but he calmed himself down. After all, the date would be a good one, (he hoped) and he had Tenten's advice (he prayed it would work.)

"Alright, but keep this to yourself."

"A secret?" Ino felt the responsibility…the responsibility to keep her mouth shut. "Sure, sure."

She turned to leave to re-enter her room when Naruto suddenly called to mind about what Tenten had advised him about earlier. His eyes lowered to the girl's rear, and reached forward to pinch her.

…

…

…

There was no 'Reflex' for what could've happened next. It only served to remind him when and why 'Reflex' didn't go off sometimes to save him from danger. Because it **wasn't** danger.

 **(Vote= 32-7) [STOP HIM!]**

"Naruto-kun!"

As he looked to his left, he got a literal flying tackle at the chest and got knocked to the ground amidst tangle of limbs. His air was briefly gone, but when he looked up, he was stunned to find himself peering up into Tenten's face. "Wha-? Tenten-chan? What're you doing?!" He exclaimed the question. Not even he could figure out why the girl would-

"Hey, it's…it's…" The Higurashi stumbled in speech. "It's…a smudge!"

"What's a smudge?" Ino asked cheekily as she gazed at the two on the floor, yet to get up. "And why are you all over Hinata's _man_?"

She said the last part rather saucily, and it threw Tenten off as she got up off of her yang on the ground, and he did as well. "Well, I was…there was something on his shirt." Tenten licked her thumb and pretended to wipe off a smudge on the boy's clothing, "see, all better now."

Naruto and Ino could only offer deadpan looks that spoke volumes of 'really?' but Tenten tried to ignore it. "Sure, you did," Ino said sarcastically.

"Wait a minute…" Naruto spoke up. "You said you wouldn't tell anyone, Ino! And you just told Tenten, even though she knew already."

"…" Ino was silent. "Isolated incident." She retreated into her room backwards and slammed the door, signifying that she was done talking to them. However, Sakura was in the room seated while thinking about Naruto's likely ownership of a dojutsu and Ino broke her thoughts. "Hey Sakura, you'd never believe who's going out on a date…"

 **=X=X= Outside**

"What the hell was that for, Tenten-chan?" Naruto chastised the bun-haired girl. "You just upped and tackled me for no reason. And what kind of a pathetic lie was that?" He said it all in a berating tone, but when he saw her look down, as if in shame. "Look…I'm sorry. I…didn't mean to get ignorant. It's just that-"

"…" She was still silent.

The Uzumaki sighed. "Look…I have to go. I still need to find Hinata-chan." He turned to make good on his word, but he was stopped with a hand on his shoulder.

"No. Wait." She had stopped him and he turned to face her. She still appeared hesitant to speak but for her sake, he waited patiently for when she was ready. "…"

"…"

"Well, you see, what I told you back in the room…"

"Yeah? The advice? Thanks for it. What about it? In fact, I was about to try it on Ino but then you came along, and-"

"Forget about everything I told you."

"?" His look was basically a gigantic question mark.

"All of it," she saw his questioning look and answered it. "It's all bullshit."

"Then why'd you tell me that BS when you knew that I'm really stressed out over this?" He asked angrily.

"It's…it was just a…prank," she lied the last, although it was hesitant; she didn't really want to tell him why she had done what she did. "It was poor timing, but uh, just forget about it."

"You mean it was a lie?" He concluded. "'Cause I don't see how that could possibly be a prank. I've been getting this sneaking suspicion that it could lead to disaster, but I kept telling myself that it was fine, because I was sure that you wouldn't try to do any wrong by me."

"No! It wasn't a lie-" She faltered under his stern gaze. "Y-yeah. It was a lie. I'm sorry."

"And then you lied about it being a lie. Why would you even do it in the first place? You know how I've been basically falling apart about tonight, and no doubt you would have just made everything worse, and make me offend the only girl that's ever had feelings for me, and may be the only one that ever will!" She had never seen him this angry before, so she knew that she had really stepped into a steaming mess this time.

How she badly wanted to tell him how she felt about him, but now, it didn't seem right. If she really loved him, she wouldn't have tried to pull off such a stunt in the first place. Besides, he was talking about what he knew, and as far as he was concerned, he was hated by everyone of the village except for a select few, and Hinata was a part of that number. If she could have done, or nearly done what she had tried to accomplish, then she had no right to pursue him, or be among the number that held him in good esteem. Wasn't she the one to tell Neji that same morning how Naruto had it hard? To think that she was about to make it worse made her sick to her stomach. Kami, she felt like such a hypocrite.

"..."

"Why'd you do that?"

'I doubt you'd want to hear the reason why I was being selfish,' was her dominating thought.

He shook his head while he walked away from one of his oldest friends…one he had trusted on a deep-seated level. "I have to go."

He turned and walked away, leaving the girl to stew in the bad-conscience of her own misdeed.

 **=X=X=**

"Why would she do that?" He mused to himself, having not yet come down from the height in his mood. "Damn! I shiver to think what would've happened! What if I had done it to Ino? The Daimyo's wife? If I can't trust Tenten, then who can I trust?" He turned inwardly to try to find out if Kurama was about, but he had gone again. It made the blond absently think that his brothers must've been going through some serious training (or an epic version of it) if Kurama was practically gone more than three-quarters of the time.

"It must be going well with them, if he can be gone so much," he mumbled. "While I'm here, up to my neck in troubles with academy mates and girl issues. And I can't even find Hinata-chan-" He froze. "Aw, damnit."

Paying closer attention to his surroundings, he held his breath and waited. Just when he realized that he couldn't sense her about, he turned on his Insight and found the Hyuuga girl perched in the tree just behind him using his peripherals.

Becoming befuddled, he turned it off, and she disappeared. He instantly became frustrated. He formed the ram seal and flared his chakra. "Kai!"

The amount of chakra he released from his virtually kage-sized reserves practically gave off a concussive effect that knocked the kunoichi from off of her branch, but luckily, she righted herself before she hit the ground; landing on her feet. She knew that she was caught, but she smiled it off. Naruto had to know why, though.

"Why?" Was all he said.

"No good reason," she admitted. "I just wanted to see how you were 'coping' for tonight."

"Not so well," he shrugged. "Hold up…since when could you do a genjutsu? As a matter of fact, how long have you been learning it? Is it Kurenai-sensei's invisibility one?"

"No. It's her camouflage one. I've been trying to learn it since coming back from Wave. It's not too difficult, because even Shino learnt it in just a week, and I was the one with better chakra control."

"It kinda bugs me that I got a teacher that can't really teach me anything," he groaned, but he shook it off quickly. "But I gotta stop grumbling about my poor hand at life." He took her hand in his and smiled. "It's starting to look up."

She reciprocated his smile, and together they walked off. However, Hinata kept discretely looking behind her. Naruto noticed, but pretended not to.

 **=X=X=**

Tenten picked up the seal off of the ground and became puzzled, even as she was still feeling the throes of her bad consciences. "Hmm? What's this?"

She got the feeling that she had seen this seal before, but couldn't quite place it. As one who frequently used seals, she could easily deduce that it was a storage seal based on the sealing matrices and kanji on it. Curiosity got the better of her, not to mention she was seeking a distraction from her current 'down-in-the-dumps' disposition.

She was thrown for a loop when she unsealed the contents, only re-discover Naruto's gift for Hinata. "What in the world?" She was breathless. "How did it get here?"

The seal was lying on the ground where she and Naruto had previously lay, and she quickly deduced what had happened while she resealed it. "It must've fallen from him, like a pocket or something."

The Higurashi leaned against the wall next to her on her back, suddenly thoughtful about what she could, would and should do. 'Hmm…maybe he'll bomb the date with Hinata. Like showing 'forgetfulness' to bring her something. Wait…no, he can't forget anything. That's stupid.' She face-palmed herself in frustration. 'What the hell is wrong with me? I shouldn't even be thinking in a situation like this! I should be happy for him! I should be running after him to pass it to him so he can give it to her! Why can't I just be happy for him and do what I should be doing for him! It's not about me. I should be like Naruto, to put others before myself. I should just let him go, no matter how much I want him for myself."

She stood straighter now, as she was more resolute here and now than anywhere or anytime else.

But at the same time, she had never felt so reluctant. In spite of this, it only served to remind her that the blond was no ordinary specimen of a human being. It was going to be extremely difficult to see the two locking arms instead of him with her, but she'd have to make the best of it. And even if she couldn't learn to be happy for him, she could always learn to pretend to.

She walked off after Naruto in the direction she had seen him go off in.

…

…

…

She walked after them at a fair speed, but when they arrived at the location, she forced herself to slow down when she saw them enter what appeared to be a middle-strike between a highly rated establishment and a roadside stand. That is, good food fare, without having to make reservations and prices just above what was expected, rather than prices one was usually unprepared for.

Tenten grinned to herself. At least he has good taste, she mused. She was about to enter when she realized that it would be awkward to just walk in just to give him what he had lost when they had their spat not even fifteen-twenty minutes before. She thought this to be her main reason why she couldn't find the confidence and mettle to just enter, do what she needed to do and leave, but despite herself, found herself content to just watch the pair from the window behind the curtains. There was enough of a perspective to see the two, but if they looked to where she was, they'd only see a crack of her, and they wouldn't have much to go on to know if she was there or not.

From the expressions, they looked like they were enjoying each other's company, but then she read Hinata's lips say her name.

To her disappointment, Naruto's expression noticeable soured more than just a bit.

 **=X=X=**

"Come to think of it, why were you even following me using that camouflage genjutsu?" Naruto queried as returned his attention to his meal. It was his first time eating it, and he had been welcomed to try it by the waiter; grilled salmon, complimented by rice and such. And Hinata went out on a limb and ordered udon noodles that were accompanied by small pieces of pork and dumplings.

"I was-"

"Stalking me, again?" He interjected, raising an eyebrow. "We've been over this. I'd rather you walking beside me than behind me."

She blushed a bit but soon suppressed it. "Well, it's not like that…this time, I should say," she amended her statement. "It was more like a test. How did you know I was there, anyway? Is it because of your eyes? Do you have a dojutsu?"

"The walls have ears," he answered. "You were testing it on me? That's not really fair, I've always had a weakness of sorts against it. Why don't you go test your luck on Neji or Sasuke or someone like that?"

"I was…curious to find out what you had planned, so I was always just one step behind you."

"Stalking," Naruto moaned adamantly. "How long were you there?"

She suddenly became uneasy. "Let's just say I…we never parted ways."

His eyes widened. "What? You mean…"

She nodded. "I saw and heard everything. Including your little comical episode and…your issue with Tenten."

Her companion's face contorted with a frown. "I don't know if I should be pissed that you breached my privacy, ashamed that you had to see that, or angry with Tenten…wait, so do you know what she was doing?"

"Hai, I do know." Hinata became thoughtful. "Not only that, but I believe I also know why. I don't think you should hold it against her; besides, she stopped you from doing anything to Ino, although I was getting ready to intervene myself."

"I don't wanna talk about it, anymore," he looked down to his dish and a wry grin creeped over his face. "Wait a minute…I could've sworn that I was the one who was having the grilled salmon?"

His dish appeared to have been swapped for Hinata's dish of noodles, and currently, she was the one having a bite of it. "It only goes to show how much you weren't paying attention; you're distracted. Besides, I saw that you wanted to try my noodles, and I also wanted a bite of your salmon. But since I'm not sure we're at the point of 'shared eating' where we intimate enough to feed one another…"

She looked up and saw her partner blushing. "Wha-?"

She smiled almost triumphantly. "Well, all things in due time. But you're avoiding the issue, and I think it's really important."

"What is?" He asked in a nigh-gruff tone.

"About Tenten. What you think about her. She had her reasons, surely."

"There can't be a good enough reason," he muttered in between bites of his udon noodles. He kept on looking down and mumbling to himself, so much so that Hinata had to reach across and tilt his chin up so that he could face her to hear her out.

"This might be a real 'downer' for a first date, but to be honest, when I saw you going to Tenten for advice, I was getting jealous. _Again_."

He had to stop eating, or he would've choked. "Again?"

She nodded. "I was jealous. Really. About how close you two were. At first, it was as if you two had seen each other for the first time ever and you were both hitting you off and I was still way behind in the background."

The Uzumaki scratched the back of his head rather sheepishly. "Heh…I guess I'm still a knucklehead for not noticing a great girl like you."

"If I took that as a compliment, it'd be an insult to your intelligence. It's my fault, as I was too shy."

He raised an eyebrow. "And it built up to the point at which you screamed at me to 'take you on a date'."

The kunoichi became bashful nearly instantly as she recalled what she had done. It'd be a long time before she mustered up enough boldness to repeat such an act but the truth was, it was mostly exasperation mixed with desperation. The memory of her screaming into her crush's face just to go on this date-…worth it.

Well worth it.

But the point hadn't been made. She had figured out Tenten's reasons, and she couldn't help but feel sorry for her. And the close bond that her significant other shared with her needed mending, and she wouldn't want to be the cause, (although indirectly,) of its current state. She had gotten between them and-

All's fair in love and war, she started to think, and Tenten was about to ruin not only Hinata's date with him, but Naruto on a whole with any girl. Even if he had done it with only one girl and was then corrected, that girl could still tell another girl, who would tell another, and that another would tell yet another, and soon everyone would know of his slip-up and avoid him like the plague.

That person could have been Ino, for instance.

But it wasn't Hinata who stopped him, it was Tenten herself, who was seemingly abandoning her strategy.

Tenten had her faults to be sure, but who didn't? Hinata knew she had his, Naruto must've had his, but right now, everything was telling her to drop the issue and just seize Naruto, but where would that leave Tenten?

Out in the cold. Along with the Uzumaki's resentment, if he continued with his current mindset.

"Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah, Hinata-chan?"

"Tenten…did it because she loves you!" She blurted out. Time, all acts of eating in the establishment briefly froze to acknowledge the two on their night out, before all realized that they were eavesdropping on a matter that did not concern them. Their eating utensils that had stilled between bowls and mouths resumed embarrassedly, the owners looking away before they were caught in the act of listening in.

Naruto's jaw dropped, and he could feel his lower lip quivering. "What?" He asked dumbfounded.

...

...

...

Tenten, who was outside, cupped her mouth with a hand to suppress a gasp in her shock, appalled as she considered the complications that arose. But what she couldn't understand was why Hinata would tell him. Why?!

It was for her to tell him, not some kind of word of mouth! After all, she-

No...it didn't matter. Tenten didn't even feel like trying to listen in anymore. She felt as if she was going to be sick to her stomach, but the strangest part of it was that she didn't feel sick. It was all emotional, and it was worse than the physical one, no questions asked. She had hurt the one closest to her, and the creeping horror of which she was convinced that in spite of all this, even if she was forgiven, she'd never forgive herself, and she didn't feel like she deserved his anyway.

Her eyes stung and her vision blurred. Immediately recognizing that waterworks were clouding her eyesight, she angrily tried to brush them away and they soon receded, but she knew that she wouldn't hold them back for long. Glancing back down at the seal in her hand, she realized that she still hadn't returned the seal back to Naruto yet.

Steeling herself for doom, she walked inside.

...

...

...

Naruto's jaw dropped, and he could feel his lower lip quivering. "What?" He asked dumbfounded.

Hinata felt like she was out of place, but she felt a need to look out for the girl who had fast become her friend. "She was becoming jealous! She must've thought that by ruining your chances with any other girl including me, that she'd be your only option."

"What kind of messed up reason is that?" The Uzumaki exclaimed his rather rhetorical question as he quickly. "That doesn't make any sense; in fact, I can't even see that making sense on paper. Doesn't she know that I'm already an outcast to the village? Why would she try to make things worse?!"

"Love makes people do some stupid things, Naruto-kun."

The blond could feel a headache coming on. "Love? Jealousy? This is getting a bit too much, even for me. Come to think of it, why would you even tell me this?"

Hinata looked down. "I looked down on her, but she still tried to help me to muster enough confidence to even approach you and...threaten you to take me on a date," the Hyuuga heiress grinned a bit, and Naruto couldn't help but smile back, as he got the joke.

"Well, sorry about the date though. Didn't turn out to be much of one. It must be because I brought my angst and emotional junk with me," he looked away, finally coming to a decision to at least salvage what he had lost. "Maybe I can still make it up to you." He reached his right hand behind him to feel his back-pocket where he kept his date's gift in the seal, but he frowned as he didn't feel any such thing.

"Huh. Where is it?" He mumbled. He realized that Hinata had replied to him and he had missed hearing it. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that."

"You could make it up to me in Konoha by taking me on another one."

"Where is that shy girl who used to faint around me?" He asked with a wry look. She in turn became bashful all of a sudden before she began staring past Naruto; her look became one of trepidation. Naruto glanced behind him to see the weapon's mistress approaching him, but he didn't display any outward change in behaviour. That was also true for how he felt on the inside, as he was still wondering how he should emote himself on all fronts.

He was still confused.

He noticed that she looked positively miserable, and her eyes appeared as if she had been crying, or was about to. He tensed himself, but instead, she took out a note-sized piece of paper as she reached him before handing it to him. He took it in caution, but soon observed it to be the very seal he was looking for.

He looked up again with, about to inquire as to how it came to be in her possession, but she answered it before he even asked it. "It fell out of your pocket when I tackled you. Naruto-kun, I'm really sorry-"

"Tenten-chan, I-" He tried to cut in, but he got no leeway as she continued.

"I just want you to know that you don't have to bother with me, anymore."

"Look, I forgive-" He didn't even finish as she turned and bolted out of the restaurant into the nightfall outside. Looking around wildly as if he lost his head and unable to make up his mind to go after Tenten or to stay with his date, he took note of Hinata placing some money on the table and he called to mind what she meant. "Right! Half of the cost!"

He dug into his pocket feverishly for his cash and slapped down more money than he'd care to count onto the table, and the seal itself. He backpedalled in his haste while hailing the Hyuuga heiress. "Hinata-chan, I really-!"

"I know!" She called back, knowing what he wanted to do.

"I promise, I'll make it up to you-!"

"I know!" She answered again.

"I'm so sorry, but I have to-" He was almost at the door now.

"Naruto-kun, I know!" She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"Thanks!" He threw his hands out to her as if in a wave before he turned to leave through the door. "You're the best!"

He was gone in the next second, and Hinata had to fight against herself to not activate her byakugan to see how far he had gone. Hinata smiled to herself before it fell into a sad-looking one. "I don't know about that one."

She went back to the meal on the table, now looking across to Naruto's now empty chair, and pretended that he was still there. "Oh Naruto-kun, that's too much money. Is most of that a tip?"

There was no answer, but she didn't care. She then eyed the seal, wondering why there was such a big fuss over it. She then recalled the seal that she had wanted to see the contents of the night she 'officially' confessed to Naruto. That had been a hard night to sleep for her, but now, she had it right in front of her!

Almost akin to one guilty of a crime, she inched her hand over to it and took it up, before unsealing the contents. She was practically breath-taken at the sight of the bouquet; a marvellous combination of purple and white lilies with lavender adorned all within by being inset around the edges. In the very focal point of it all, a single red rose was placed and the plastic that had pulled everything together was considerate too, as it appeared to be of high-enough quality even worthy of use by the higher ups in the Hyuuga such as her father, all patterned with the words 'ALL FOR HER'. After deeply inhaling the flowers, she then noticed a card addressed to her, and she opened it to find a haiku inside.

 _Thanks, Hinata-hime,_

 _I feel very much honoured._

 _Hope to love you too._

She smiled to herself as she read it. "I hope so too. But if Tenten is the better one for you, Naruto-kun, I'll stand aside."

Rising up out of her seat, she called for the bill. Once it was paid, she left the restaurant with the bouquet in her arms, a peaceful look on her face. One good turn deserves another, she supposed.  
She also supposed that she deserved this bouquet.

She deserved it very much.

 **=X=X=**

"Tenten-chan, wait!" Naruto hollered.

"Just leave me alone! I said don't bother with me!"

"What does that mean?!" He shouted to the kunoichi far ahead of him. He couldn't quite believe it. The girl had some speed in her sandals; no doubt it was because she worked under a taijutsu master who valued speed and strength above all else. It's not that she was losing him, it's just that for all his efforts, he just couldn't catch up, or gain any more ground.

They were tree-hopping into the night, and Naruto grew more worried about the beasts that killed people and ate them to the bone, then the bones themselves. From all of his reasoning, he could see that it was getting far too dark, even for a normal night. He recalled from the earlier reports about how an over bearing darkness usually preceded the grisly deaths.

"Tenten-chan! We've got to leave and go back to the hotel! It's not safe out here!"

She had no answer, except to drop a few smoke bomb pellets, evidently done to lose him in the cover they provided. There was no need for that, as it now became increasingly dark and the smoke bombs only made it worse. By the time Naruto had passed through the smoke to the other side, he could barely see his hands in front of his face.

"This is getting really bad!" He muttered in his urgency to find the girl. As he peered around, he soon heard what sounded like multiple footfalls and the sound of the Higurashi's yells. He had a hard time trying to get a tell on the situation, but he deduced that she must've gotten tripped up somewhere to his right.

But the footfalls sounded like they were coming from all directions and were converging to where he had heard the weapon's mistress. He became alarmed at this, and his theory from earlier ran through his mind.

 _If I'm right, then good people have nothing to worry about._

He was harrowed at the thought of being wrong, and even more that he might be right. But what and how and who could determine who was good from who was not? Not everything was so black and white.

Was Gato an evil man?  
Well, for starters, he killed people, sold women into prostitution, committed arson and the like.  
He was evil, wasn't he?

Was Zabuza an evil man?  
The man was known by the moniker the 'Demon of the Hidden Mist'. That 'Decapitating Carving knife' of his wasn't a knife **at all**. It was a goddamn over-sized sword made for bifurcating multiple people with one swing. And the stories that the man told while he was on good terms with Naruto...it made everyone who heard pale in horror. Zabuza was basically a mass-killer, and little more than that if he actually was something else.  
He was evil, wasn't he?

What about himself? (Naruto)

Naruto knew that he had killed before, and several times, went over the top to do it. Killing? If there was a humane way of doing it, Naruto knew he had never done it. And what of his brothers? Surely, he was responsible for all the killings and any other misdeeds they may have committed, as they were all created by him.  
He was evil, wasn't he?

And what of the Kyuubi?

He'd been killing people before Naruto was even born. From the time he had entered existence, he had killed, or so Kurama had claimed. And then there was the razing of the village. Yeah, he had been under foreign control, but there was simply no forgiving his deeds, was there? He had destroyed more than half the village and the same amount of life with it.  
He was evil, wasn't he?

Naruto didn't know. He didn't consider himself as evil, and he didn't think of Zabuza nor did he think of Kurama as evil. But he did know with all that he was that Gato was evil.

"Maybe it's because he enjoyed it. Maybe it's because he did it for the sake of doing it. Or even it's because he did it just for the sake of doing wrong. But I don't recall ever regretting any sort of killing, and I don't think Zabuza has either. Or he's gotten past it. I dunno. But all I know is that they're going after Tenten, or they're strafing by her too close for comfort. I have to do something."

Deciding that Insight might prove to be fruitful, he activated his dojutsu and realized that he couldn't so much as see in the darkness, but in fact, saw through it.

The darkness wasn't real. It was false.

He tried a genjutsu Kai as he ran through, tree-hopping to get to Tenten's location. If it was a genjutsu, it didn't dispel, but now he realized that he could see four legged beasts tree-hopping as he did but while he couldn't quite make out their colours (still too dark, and Insight didn't really have a colour scheme) he could still see that they were of many assorted sizes. But not only that, he could also hear a great many of flies buzzing, and even saw birds flying amongst the tops of trees. Birds with overly large wing-spans.

For the first time in a long time, Naruto felt...scared.

" _ **Waste! Decimate! Devastate! Annihilate! Raze! HYA HYA HYAAA! Decimate WASTE!"**_

It was done like a chant, and it echoed around the forest, seemingly from each animal. But then, the cackling came in full swing, and it gave Naruto the shivers...the unpleasant ones that froze his spine and he couldn't move.

" _ **HYA HYA HYAAA! HYA HYA HYAAA!"**_

These creatures were all around, even running around and past him, and he took heart that they were ignoring him. After breathing a sigh of relief, he realized that they weren't going to simply pass her.

They were converging on her location.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no! Please, Kami, NO!" Naruto yelled, hardly able to bear the thought of Tenten being destroyed infinitesimally, her body eaten by creatures such as this. In his state now, he lowered his gravity seal to two to race ahead to catch up to the girl.

 **=X=X=**

Why couldn't he get it through his head? Tenten wondered bitterly. 'That's Naruto for you. Loyal to a fault, all the time, every time.'

She got the feeling that she was being stared at intensely in this growing thick of darkness that enveloped the woods that she was running through. She felt fear spreading through her like a malignant cancer, and all it collected to the point that she wanted to scream in terror, but held back on that by biting her lower lip.

" _ **Waste! Decimate! Devastate! Annihilate! Raze! HYA HYA HYAAA! Decimate WASTE!"**_

In a panic at hearing the voices call and mockingly laugh at her, she threw her weapons haphazardly all around. She used a great deal, but no one, (or nothing, rather) called or groaned in pain. She was about to throw more when she missed the next branch to leap to due to the darkness, but accidentally knocked it with her head and her feet flew forward in front of her and fell to the ground on her back.

It wasn't enough to badly hurt her head due to her headband, and she had taken worse spills before. But what froze her was the sight of ethereal and nightmarish creatures come creeping forth out of the darkness like shadows taken on a form. She believed she could make out the glistening of large teeth, and glowing, glinting eyes watched her, and they came closer.

"No! Stay back!"

" _ **Waste…HYA HYA HYAAA!"**_

"Leave me alone!" She yelled in a tone she hoped sounded threatening as she turned to run again. Throwing down caltrops as she backpedalled, she then swerved and started running now, her hands before her and in front of her face to protect it. She bumbled through the undergrowth, nearly tripping up far too often as she couldn't even tell if her eyes were open or not anymore; it was that dark.

" _ **DECIMATE WASTE! ANNIHALATE! RAZE! WASTE!"**_

Then she crashed headlong into something, only to fall unto the ground. Something warm ran down the side of her head and she feared that it was her own blood.

" _ **WASTE!" "HYA HYA HYAAA!"**_

"NO!" She heard a yell that she believed to be Naruto's, before a cry of pain like a howling animal's came from behind her, then even more of a warm liquid ran down her body. She could smell the iron from it as it ran down her body and nearly froze completely. It was blood. But was it hers?

She then heard the sound of steel stabbing into flesh, which was then followed by the sound of something heavy impacting another. By the sounds of grunts, she that usually preceded these sounds of attacks, she could tell it was Naruto doing the acts, but what was he doing the acts _on?_

She smelt smoke now, as a small flare of something lit up, revealing Naruto beside her. The flare was then revealed to be the ending flame of a paper-bomb connected to a kunai, and the Uzumaki threw it somewhere ahead of the two of them, where it lit up the area with a fiery explosion.

Before her Ekrixiphobia kicked in at the sight of the explosion, she saw what looked like dozens of the creatures all around her revealed by the momentary lighting, all with saliva dripping from their maws and carrion birds with eyes that stared at her. None of the creatures were really looking at Naruto. They were all dead-set on her instead.

She realized that they were coming for her like demons out of hell, coming to drag her soul with them to wherever they came from.

"NO! SHE'S NOT WASTE! SHE'S NOT **GARBAGE!** " Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs, surprising her. "She has **value** , y'hear me! She has value! She is VALUED!"

"I'm…what?" Tenten asked herself mentally as she strained against her body for it to respond to her brain's commands.

"I know what you creatures really are!" Naruto bellowed all about. "I know what you want! But not her, not Tenten-chan! She has value! You hear me! She still has worthwhile use and purpose! She's not broken; she's whole! She's fine just the way she is!" There was another sound of a melee attack as Naruto said the last with effort; yet another animal crooned in pain. The bedlam of fighting continued on the creatures, but Naruto himself soon cried out in pain, just two feet or so in front of her. "She is valued!" The Uzumaki continued through what sounded like gritted teeth. Tenten's body finally responded and she crawled over to where she heard Naruto last on her hands and knees, shivering all the while.

It was a horrible experience. It was pitch black to her, and upon her last glimpse of sight, she had seen a multitude of creatures, on the ground, in the trees, flying around, EVERYWHERE! Naruto surely couldn't take them all, as most of them were quite large. More than half of them were bigger than two horses put together, and shaped like dogs.

Her phobia should have rendered her completely useless for a long while, not to mention total her mental stability for a week, but for her to even manage a crawl was nothing short of a miracle. The logic followed that route, but she never could comprehend why she would be crawling to the boy she was fond of instead of trying to make her escape while the creatures' focus rested on him instead. But she knew why. It was obvious too.

In fact, when she felt the weight of one solidly step onto her back, and she was pinned under its massive foot. Paw was more like it, and judging from the paw that covered her upper back and a blunt claw-like object extend unto her neck spoke large volumes as to what kind of creatures these were.

Their claws were non-retractable, and they spoke of destroying waste…?

They were carrion-eating creatures, as they killed and thinned out those who were weak, and destroyed all that was worthy of being dead, or that which was already dead.

But the thought that she was to be classed like that didn't bother her. She still tried to claw her way to where she had heard Naruto go down, but the gigantic paw wouldn't allow it. Reaching downwards for a kunai at her side, she desperately tried to slash it backwards to hurt the creature enough to make it release her, but although she managed to nick it a few times, she failed to get away.

"Let me GO!"

" **...Not waste? Value?"** The voices seemingly asked themselves questioningly, as if unsure what to do next.

The sound of the cackling came again, before the paw pressed down almightily, and she lost consciousness, the sound of muttering Naruto's name barely being heard as it escaped from between her lips.

 **=X=X=**

"No!" He yelled as he awoke suddenly. His eyes frantically searched around, trying to gather his bearings and he soon did, thanks to Focus. But all that rested on his mind currently was the fate of the weapon's mistress. So much so, that he didn't even realize that he was somewhere else. Somewhere unrecognizable but as it was common to try and find similarities to what one was familiar with, Naruto realized that it could be likened to a library. Books were strewn about on the ground, some pages torn up, true, but nearly everything else save for those were on three bookshelves that penned him in from all sides sans for one. A foul odour permeated the air, and the boy knew that it couldn't have been must-...the smell was far too strong. It was fairly well lit, though, as chandeliers hung overhead with candles that had wicks aflame that hardly flickered. All was still.

"Tenten-chan? What-…where are…we?" It was as if he was now only seeing as he noticed the girl lying belly up on what was apparent to be a pile of books behind him, in his blind spot. He tried to get up but barely could, as a crippling pain reminisced in his chest. He was forced to remember how he had taken a damaging strike to his upper torso from one of the creatures who attacked him and-

"But…where are they? Where are we?" He forced himself to take it a bit easier so he could at the very least get up unto his feet and limp to her side; she was unconscious. "Tenten-chan? Tenten-chan?" He gently slapped her face, trying to get her to wake up. All the while, he looked around and soon realized that they were in a library-…an abandoned one or a neglected one, judging from how dusty it was, although that wouldn't explain the small piles of white somethings here and there. He had to guess that it was done on the part of the creatures, but where were they? If they weren't around now, then that was for the better. In fact, now that he thought about it, the smell must've been coming from those piles and lumps. They varied in size, but he had no inclination to study them.

As he tried to wake her up, he looked the kunoichi over for wounds. She had some dried blood on her face from an opening he found under her headband. It didn't look serious, or serious enough to require attention immediately. As he looked down on the girl's face, he couldn't help but bring to mind how contorted her expression looked now, like how she was when she was younger in his care.

'She still hasn't gotten over her past? Or is it something new?'

He heard yapping noises, here and there as if the creatures or phenomenons were in the same room area as he was. He realized that the creatures may have carried them off to this location, but why? How, in fact?

"Mmm…aghh…" He looked down, hearing the murmurings of the Higurashi; she was waking up, as even her eyes fluttered and fully opened. "Urg. Wha-? Naruto-kun? Where are we?" She lifted an arm up and eased him aside so that she could rise up at the waist. Seeing him flinch upon contact with her hand against his chest, she hurriedly withdrew it. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"N-nothing." He defended, hoping to not worry her. "C'mon, we have to go."

She realized that something must've been wrong with him, but didn't press it in favour of finding out something else. "Didn't you bring us here? To this…library?" She observed with a studying gaze.

"No. I fell unconscious."

She realized that the same thing had happened to her, and slowly became more and more alarmed. "Then-"

"The creatures must've brought us here." He finished, mirroring her look. "We've gotta find a way out." He looked all around. "This part is lit up with candles, but I think I feel wind coming from…" he pointed off in a seemingly random direction, "over there. I think it's the best bet to find an exit."

She didn't have a response except to scramble to her feet, but she noticed that Naruto had less luck just trying to stand straight. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I am," he muttered through gritted teeth.

"No, you're not." She felt reminded about how the previous night had gone. "I guess my lying caught up to me. It's karmic, and it's fair, I suppose."

"No! It's not like that." Naruto defended.

"Just drop it," she stated with a tone that implied that she didn't feel comfortable talking about such a subject. She held out her hand, which he reluctantly took. After he did, she then helped him to stand straighter, and hooked his arm over and around her shoulders and neck. It was harder, because she was a bit taller than him. (Or he was shorter, it was all about perspective.)

They both hobbled off into a passageway that was littered with books on either side on the ground at the foot of bookcases filled to capacity, tightly packed with books and scrolls. As he was passing, Naruto snatched one and popped it open with one hand and it fell open on the pages in the middle. "What the…"

"What is it?" Tenten queried, having seen what he had done.

"This one's a jutsu. For water release." He let the book fall onto another page and saw another one. "Here's another one. This jutsu's for earth release."

"Keep that book," Tenten cautioned. But instead, he dropped it and snatched another one despite her advice. She was about to complain, but she saw as soon as he did that this book also had info about techniques. The next one he took up in favour of the second one was on the practices and uses of puppetry, and the fourth, a biography on Tobirama Senju, the second Hokage. This went on for another minute, and Naruto was having a hard time wondering if he could make enough seals for the whole library.

"This is a lot to take in. Where and how did these books come about? Did those creatures do this? Or is it just a coincidence that this might-be lair of theirs happened to be a dark and dank library?"

"I don't know."

They were silent as they stagger-walked along, and Tenten grew more and more nervous with each step, as Naruto leaned heavily against her. She was getting self-conscious about it, but didn't know how to tell. him. It wasn't uncomfortable, just a minor inconvenience. But she bore it; it was the very least she could do. The crap that she had pulled last night probably assured that she would be paying him back for life, not to mention all he had done and gone through for her sake when they were younger.

"Tenten-chan?" Naruto mumbled.

"Hmm?" Came her intelligent reply.

"How did you know where to find me last night to give back the seal?"

No use lying, she thought with a sigh. "I followed you. I was standing outside, nerving myself up to just go and give it to you, but I ended up just watching instead."

Naruto hesitated. "Thanks. But does that mean that you saw and heard everything?"

"I heard enough." She could tell that he was thinking about what Hinata had told him, and feared that instead that not only would he and her never be together as a pair, but that it would ruin their friendship even more. Things might grow increasingly awkward to the point that they may stop associating with each other to avoid the discomfiture.

"So, about what Hinata said-"

"As a sister!" She blurted out as a last ditch effort that might yet salvage what was left of their friendship, since he might never come to be with her. "I love you like a sister would like a younger brother!"

"..." He was silent as he tried to get a read on her. Finally, he just tried to push himself away from her. "Ugh. Lying begats more lying. Your eyes looked up and to my left. You were consulting the side of your mind that embodies creativity." He stumbled a bit, but finally allowed most of his weight to lean against a bookshelf. "Are you ashamed of it, or something?"

She looked away and tugged nervously at her collar. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, I really am. But I'm afraid of acknowledging-"

"You feelings?" He guessed to finish her sentence.

"Yes!" She exclaimed. "But I'm even more afraid of losing you, you know? I mean, all the way from when you first got me to the Orphanage was when I realized that I had it for you bad, but I soon forgot about it. All my 'isms' and 'schisms' and medication and what not..." Her eyes fell, fearing to meet his gaze. "And then meeting you again, just to find out that someone else had you in their sights."

"Hinata-chan, you mean." He answered the left-out detail of her confession.

"Uh-huh," she continued. "But I tried to help her and junk, 'cause even now, I still feel like I'm damaged goods and all that B-S. And Hinata's basically a goddess compared to me. I'm just an orphan no money, and I probably have more mental problems than proper sense to not try to trick you like I did. I'm probably the closest person besides Kyuubi who knows the kind of shit you had to go through, and I was about to make it worse."

"But why? Why'd you do it?" He pressed.

"I...Hinata told you already." She muttered unsurely.

"I'm asking you!" He exploded suddenly, making her backpedal a step or two. "Why are you so afraid to just be frank with me?!"

"..."

"..."

The air was poignant with emotions as the two finally locked eyes. Tenten was still afraid to just tell him, and the Uzumaki, while he was told already, wished to hear it from the girl's mouth itself. "It's because...it's 'cause I love you, okay? Not the kind of words for me to just say so casually," she shrugged her shoulders. "It doesn't matter, anymore. If you'll let me, I'll still be your friend, giving you a shoulder to brace on, a person to make bets with, someone to compete with; hell, I'll even go to your wedding and smile. Although I probably won't bring a gift, though. I'm still broke. I'll only go to it to crash it to get the food for free."

There was a pause at this, and Tenten hoped desperately for mended bridges. Instead, Naruto burst out into laugher that hurt his chest, but he didn't care. "For the food, huh? Ah, c'm here!" He extended his arms, but it was with trepidation and tentativeness that Tenten stepped forward to him and hugged him back. The hug was particularly enjoyable to the weapon's mistress, and she momentarily forgot about the situation they were in.

"God, I wish I could kiss you right now." She murmured. "But it's not right. You're dating Hinata."

"That's true. But I have a feeling that she wanted me and you to at the very least come together like this after your gaff nearly ruined my social life with the girls."

"What girls," she shot back, her head still over his shoulder.

"You and Hinata-chan, apparently." Naruto sighed. "Why can't life be simple?" He finally let go of the girl, and they smiled at each other. "No hard feelings."

"Thanks." She was about to try and brace him up like before when she realized that the upper part of her Chinese-style blouse looked bloodied. Her eyes widened, but she realized that it couldn't be hers, as she felt no pain. "Naruto-kun! Are you injured?!"

He gulped fairly loudly. "Uh huh."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to worry you. Besides, Kurama will soon heal it."

"Kurama? Hmm...is that Kyuubi's name?" She hazarded. Getting a nod from him, shrugged. "Ah, well. Anyway, let's just get out of this stinkin' library."

He retook his position at her shoulder, and the two walked off on their previous course. "It must be those white piles."

"The smell?" Tenten joked. "Is that white stuff on the ground shit?"

"I hope not, 'cause it'd mean these grounds are probably marked as territory for those things that nearly killed us." Naruto answered. He kicked at a dry pile, but froze after he did. The girl holding him up had to ask him what was wrong.

"Oh Kami," Naruto trembled. "We've gotta leave as soon as possible. That was shit alright, but…there were bone pieces in it."

"Bones?" Tenten paled.

"Human bones," the Uzumaki affirmed. "One of them looked like they had a ring on it."

They put a bit more haste in their hurry to leave now, but instead, came to a sort of pedestal in an end of rows, and a large book rested on a stand. The two looked all around for a door or any kind of exit for that matter, but saw nothing except for a probable dead end with only the oversized book for a welcome.

"Great," Tenten murmured. "We're gonna die in a frickin' library with who-knows-what kind of creatures that eat people, and our alternative is starving to death or dying from a lack of fluids."

"Sorry," Naruto murmured.

"It's not your fault." She tried to console, and he appreciated it greatly.

"But if this isn't the way out, how did we get here?" The blond Uzumaki couldn't help but wonder. "Help me up to that pedestal. I want to see why that book is up there."

"Hardly the time to want to read, Naruto-kun."

"It must be special, if it's all the way here by itself." She helped up to where the book was, and Naruto flipped open the cover. "Hmm…so that's where we are. And that's what those creatures are..."

"What?" Tenten asked anxiously. "What are they? I'm getting paranoid, and you're being too damn vague!

"It's a summoning contract. With the Scavengers."

 **Well, this chapter was easy at first, but the library scene needed (and still needs) a lot or ironing out. Besides, we're about a chapter away from the end of this arc, some things will be explained, a little more will be spoiled (just info, I don't mean 'rotting', obviously) and you...well, at least you all can see why I did this arc. It's very obvious, and if you don't see it, then you're as blind as a bat.**

 **In other slightly related matters, can anyone guess the type of creature that dominated this arc? You know, nocturnal hunters and eaters mostly, eyes that reflect light, can eat prey entirely and basically ignores everything else (including pain) while they eat, is a scavenger by nature, and leaves behind poo that is mostly white because they eat bones?**

 **Oh, for the love of-...look at the smart alecks trying to Google it. Oh well. I can tell you, it's a summoning creature idea I've never seen before in all of fanfiction. You would not believe the amount of searches and researches that I've done to check, and find out how notorious and useful the creature is.**

 **Another hint(s): The 'Hya Hya Hyaaa' was the sounds of laughter. It lives in Africa. But hey, this creature can work for a fictional Japanese setting.**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	38. Chapter 38

**Breaking Limits**

 **Hey, everybody! Sorry it took so long. I got caught up with fics that were celebrating anniversaries, and you know how it goes. Special attention rules apply, not to mention other fics I want to finish on local before posting in the future.**

 **Last time, our (main) protagonists for Wave [Naruto & Tenten] stumbled into an ambush by the 'Scavengers' and woke up in a '?' (No spoilers). All those who guessed the creature 'Hyena' can have all the cookies they want! Good for dieters too, 'cause they have no calories of which to speak of. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

 **38\. (Wow. Chapter 38? How long has it been?)**

"What do you mean, the 'Scavengers'?" Tenten uttered in half-amazement and half-fear. "Do you know what kind of creatures they are?"

"Obviously they're the ones who've been plaguing the town, Tenten-chan. Or are you asking me what and who they are specifically?" Naruto continued to look over the book and wondered if he should sign it or not. Perhaps not; to sign it may be asking for unnecessary trouble. But when the time came, he'd need all the help he could get to finally take down his number one enemy, the one he only knew as 'Ito'. Maybe Kurama even felt the same way.

Speaking of which…

"I'm gonna need some help with this one," the Uzumaki mused. He turned to Tenten who was looking about, as if every shadow in the library they were in contained an enemy who was stealing after them to slit their throats. "Hey Tenten-chan, could you guard me for a bit? I need to talk to the Kyuubi."

"Is now such a good time?" She asked worriedly. "And why can't you just talk normally to him?"

"He's…not really…there as in 'there'," He wondered if he could tell her about his brothers-…the same ones who were clones…made from a complicated mixture of chakra releases and different layers of yang, youki and so on. He knew he could trust her with this info, but could he trust her in general? He needed no reminder about what had happened mere hours (or how long it had actually been) ago, when she had nearly turned him into lady-repellent…as if he wasn't enough of one already.  
But things were different now, right? Hinata had cleared that up, telling him that she had been doing it out of jealousy. It wasn't done tell him the reason why she acted the way she did, but to excuse her for it.

Yes, things were different now. And who was he to hold a grudge? Besides against Ito, that is?

" _Tenten-chan? I've got a dozen brothers." He deadpanned. "And the Kyuubi likes to spend more time supervising their training and whatnot in their heads instead of being in mine."_

" _I believe you!"_

He didn't really see that happening, although it was rather comical in his mind's eye.

"His mind isn't really in the seal, Tenten-chan," he said at last. He was cut off by the weapon's kunoichi right then and there:

"It's out of its mind?!" She exclaimed in disbelief.

"No, no! Look, I'll explain later, alright?" He answered anxiously. "Just guard my body. Can I trust you to do that?"

"Sure," she said after a while. "Just do whatever you gotta do quickly."

With a grateful nod, his consciousness retreated to the seal, and he fell backwards in a topple into the girl's arms. While confused about what the blond meant, she decided that he was right. To leave all her questions for later, sure, but would there even be a 'later'? She was still being targeted, wasn't she? By these same creatures that nearly killed Naruto and her last night.

As her mind began wondering about this, she plopped herself down to sit, easing Naruto's upper torso down and rested his head in her lap. Why would they spare Naruto's life, much less hers? She was the one targeted after all, she knew that, but why were they still alive? Was it a sign that they-

She shook her head to remove the thought before it took root. It was not meant. Naruto was going to be with Hinata, and while she was grateful to the heiress for picking up for her like that, Tenten would still be short a great guy to snag. So unless Hinata died and she (Tenten stepped in from being the runner up) or Naruto decided to end the relationship with Hinata or some law that was some kind of deus ex machina to solve their current problem, she was out of luck.

She loved him. Didn't she? She was sure that it wasn't infatuation. But perhaps some things were never meant to be.

 **=X=X=**

The members of the ninja team reacted in their own unique ways.

There were some who didn't really care, some who genuinely cared but were silent, some who genuinely cared and was noisy, some who believed that everything was fine, and one who was perverse about it, and everyone ignored him.

While Kiba was being snubbed after his tactless remark about what a boy and a girl would do if they were alone together, Gai was surprisingly calm and Asuma was getting worried. He was starting to think that perhaps that Naruto really did complicate missions.

"Gai." Asuma called out to his fellow jounin quietly, hoping that he'd answer in like fashion. Obviously, the Taijutsu specialist caught on to the tone in the Sarutobi's voice and answered the way he was supposed to.

"Yes?"

"I asked the other genin. From what I've heard, neither Tenten nor Naruto came back to the hotel last night."

Gai was silent. This was indeed troubling, as even he could grasp that in a town like this that had more than five brutal killings a week that left no corpses, something may very well have happened to the two genins. Tenten, not to imagine Naruto, had gone through too much only to have their lives cut short because of a B rank mission, no matter how bizarre it was. Twelve genins and two jounins? This mission should have been over already.

Instead, they had to deal with a Shikamaru even more lethargic and thoughtful than before, Kiba and Sasuke with minor night-terrors about their mission in Suna, Chouji who was convinced that they were eating on an unlimited budget, Sakura who was trying to ask Neji and Sasuke about the earlier fight to see if any of them had seen anything unusual about Naruto and Hinata…who looked rather…expressive. Expressive, but also bipolar. One minute she would be happy, but in another minute, she'd look discontent and miserable.

What was going on?

Sure, some things might be easily explained, but the fact remained. Where were the last two students?

"Hmm. Have you asked Hinata? She might know, as she used to habitually 'follow' Naruto," Maito pointed out. "Remember?"

"You have a point there, but I asked her already. She said that they left together last night, Tenten running away and Naruto giving chase. Not too many details, but it sounded like what must've been an angsty moment. Romance issues or something, given how Hinata's involved in the first place. Aren't they too young for this kind of crap?"

"And they haven't returned? It's eight in the morning."

Asuma sighed while he rubbed his temples. "Ugh. I can see where Kurenai is coming from. But we have to do something-"

"Asuma," Gai tried to speak rationally. "I'm sure they're fine. Besides, it's not as if they're civilians, unable to take care of themselves. If anything, you should be more worried if they're…" Gai's face flushed a bit, before he shook his head. "Never mind."

"What were you going to say?" The Sarutobi asked.

"…" Gai was silent.

"…" Asuma waited patiently, and in doing so, showed that he wasn't going to take silence for an answer. Gai sighed after a long while, before he did so ashamedly:

"Hanky-panky."

Asuma could only click his tongue in disapproval. "I never would've expected that from **you**. In the meantime, we should just get Hinata or maybe Kiba to track them if they take even two hours more of being absent. We'll have to keep it discreet and-"

There came a hard knock at the door, and Asuma sighed. "Aw, Kami. Come in messenger-san," he called, having a feeling that another murder had occurred. "Who is it this time?" 'I hope it's not the kids.'

The man came in meekly, not even realizing that he had been found out simply because it had almost become a habit to knock on the jounin's door at this time-…not that he wanted to. "It's been a man who was once accused of a sex-offense-…his teenage niece claimed that she was nearly raped by him. A man with him has also been killed. A local bad-john. Apparently, the people who knew of them are actually thankful that they're dead."

"It's an ill thing to wish death on anyone, but if the people who knew them better than us can say that, then I suppose its fine. Hold on…are there any corpses?" The Taijutsu jounin asked, confused. Normally, since there was usually a lack of corpses, no one would normally know who they were.

"They were harassing a woman. She claimed that she was running from them and horrifying creatures took them down. 'Laughing wickedly and saying 'decimate waste' the whole time', she said," the messenger replied. "We just let her go. She's the one to report it. Report said that it happened at five this morning on the other side of town, closer to the forest."

"Hmm…" Asuma became thoughtful. "It's almost that they're doing this town a favour. But what are they? Who are they? Why are they doing this?"

"I wonder…" Gai said at last. "I get the _oddest_ feeling that these creatures might be _cleaning_ the town."

"…"  
Asuma grew silent before his tongue unloosened. "That's preposterous!" He exploded. "These things are killing people, eating them to nothing but bloodstains! How's that for _cleaning_ the town, Gai?! Haven't you heard the reports? They're supposedly ghastly creatures, killing and maiming and causing destruction-"

"Do you remember what Naruto said yesterday afternoon when he spoke of his findings?" Gai asked pointedly.

"He said: 'If I'm right, then good people have nothing to worry about'," the Sarutobi quoted. "But-"

"Well, well. You don't have to trust the word of a genin who's singlehandedly pulled through the Kimyō Town, now do you, _Kurenai_?" Gai said with a smirk, almost as a taunt. This made Asuma falter, and wondered if the man was right. But what was up with the damn attitude? And calling him _Kurenai_ ,as if he were the woman who used to express her negative emotions about the Uzumaki pertaining to trust? Really? Was this Maito Gai?

"I do accept Naruto's word. He's no ordinary genin. But these things are killing and eating people. But these people are _supposedly_ **bad people**. Just think about it for a minute…"

 **=X=X=**

" **He'll soon make the transition to level seven with the gravity seal. Imagine, a** _ **clone**_ **of your creation made it past you in a critical area. Meanwhile, you're struggling at level five. How do you feel, knowing that your brothers are surpassing you in so many ways?"**

Naruto was nonchalant. "I'm okay. To each his own, right? He's been focusing on that only, while I have a lot of things to juggle, not to mention I'm on this mission."

The Kyuubi cleared his throat loudly. **"Excuse me? And?"**

The boy sighed. "And relationship issues with Hinata-chan and Tenten-chan. Now can we please move along? I'm getting a bit fed up of you throwing up everyone else's progress to me. Why?"

" **I thought it'd give you more drive. You don't even communicate with them anymore. Even the latest about the library clones back in Konoha, going on about they're almost done reading the whole damn library's worth of books. You're just all by your lonesome, and it's making them feel like superfluous constructs. They kinda are, but they're emotional like you, maybe even more since they're aware that they're clones. Maybe that would explain why they're getting so zealous about training, hoping that their raw abilities can surpass your dojutsu and all that junk."**

"If you were here, I wouldn't be alone," Naruto calmly accused the nine-tailed Fox Demon. "But the next time you decide to skip out, send everyone my regards. Now focus! The 'Scavengers'! I need any info you have on them! You keep diverting from the issue!"

" **Yeah, yeah, I got what you know..."** Kurama trailed off. **"But where did you say you were? A library filled with all kinds of useful miscellaneous knowledge?"**

"Yeah. And they were targeting Tenten-chan. But for some reason, they let us live, and I came across what I think is their contract." He plopped himself down into the grass of the mindscape and looked up into the Kyuubi's face. "What do you think?"

" **I think...wait...were there more than one type of these creatures? 'Scavengers' feels like a rather broad term."**

The Uzumaki tried to recall his memories of the night before and remembered hearing a great many buzzing of flies, and the creatures he had fought had different kinds of structures. They were still quad-pedal, but he could tell from their different gaits that there were large differences. Not to mention, he did see what he believed were birds with large wingspans. "Yeah. Maybe...three, four or more types of creatures attacked us. Birds, insects, and at least one type of dog-or-cat-like creature."

" **To be blunt...I smell a setup."** The Kyuubi stated easily. **"That's all I've got, but to what I can tell, everything must be revolving around that damned contract. But the casing question is: to sign or not to sign?"**

"What do you recommend, then?"

" **For now, don't sign it. Just try to find a way out of the library, assuming that you're still on the same plain of existence that you should. Know what I mean?"**

"Yeah. I'm going out, but I need you to **stay**. In the meantime, could you patch me up? I took some hits last night, and I can't even walk properly; I have to be leaning on Tenten-chan."

" **Sure, sure."**

 **=X=X=**

Tenten was absentmindedly running her hand through Naruto's hair when his eyes snapped open and he caught her in the act. "Err...I won't make a big deal out of it if you don't!" She cried hastily.

"Agreed." He answered in like manner before leaning up. As he tried to gather his bearings, he heard the yipping sounds of the mystery creatures. It sounded a bit like giggling, but Tenten looked thoroughly frightened, being aware that they were far from being in an ideal situation; moreover, she was a target by these same creatures. The very same that ate people and shat their bones.

She had a **FANTASTIC** reason to be afraid.

"So, did you find out what we should do from the Kyuubi?" She asked nervously.

"Kinda. He said that we should keep on trying to find a way out, and leave the summoning contract alone." Naruto stood up now, and Tenten was amazed to see him stand under his own power. She knew he could heal fast, but not that **fast**!

Now wouldn't be the first time that she wished that she was a jinchuriki so that she could heal quickly too.

The giggling and assorted sounds seemed to come from everywhere, and Naruto looked up and all around, but still unable to see anything. He was about to set off on his own, and to be frank...Tenten was downright afraid of being on her own.

"Hey! Naruto-kun! I'll come too!"

"Huh? Sure." He briefly wondered if he should activate his dojutsu in front of her, but soon reasoned it to be alright with a classic 'sure, why the hell not?' in his mind. He triggered his 'Insight', and as soon as he did, he saw the world in black, white and different shades of gray, with everything of interest highlighted in a glowing silver. Just like the night before, he instantly saw where all the creatures were.

He couldn't quite believe the sheer amount of these creatures. They occupied so much space, had these forms...and they were sleeping. Most of them anyway. The bird-like ones had eyes that were open, and Naruto could see that the birds were watching them intently.

Naruto paled, and sweat beaded on his forehead. He turned to Tenten who was staring off in every direction, it seems, and she still didn't see the creatures. Was her ability to see that much less than his, or was it his ability to see that far beyond hers now? 'Insight' was certainly a powerful ocular too, no doubt about that, but-

"Hey Naruto-kun...holy shit!" She exclaimed in a hiss as she turned back to him and saw his silver-cartwheel design eyes. "I knew it! You did have a dojutsu!"

He rolled his eyes indifferently. "Yeah."

"And you were trying to play it off as contact lenses! Damn, I knew that reason was a load of bull."

"You did?" He asked, pleasantly surprised, although he knew that it had been a poor attempt to lie at the time. "How?"

"I know that you can't lie, especially not _well_ , dummy." She deadpanned. "But sometimes I just get the feeling that someone is lying, or when they're telling the truth. I fancy myself to be some sort of lie-detector."

Naruto shook the explanation off, although he could tell that she was talking loudly to drown out the sounds of laughter. He didn't blame her, but anything that could sound the way they did and made laughter that was so infantile in pitch and behaviour, certainly didn't make his top list of intimidation techniques. "Is **that** so?" He replied.

"Of course. But do you see _anything_ while you have it on? Like Neji's byakugan?" She pressed. She huddled a bit closer to him as they walked, searching for a potential exit.

"I see things of interest when I have it on. Like if something was normal before and then changed, or some enemy hiding in a henge or something. That's how I see things." He replied a bit shortly, not wanting to give away too many precious details.

"Well? Are you seeing any of these creatures or not? Or the way to get out of here?"

"No." He said, trying to answer her later question. He didn't feel the need to frighten her by telling her that they were practically surrounded.

"No for both?" She inquired. He nodded to that, not daring to answer using his words. She shook her head and told him that she was aware that he just told a lie, before she went silent; both having a lot to think about. During this time, he started wondering about the seal that Ito claimed to have placed on her while she was catatonic so long ago. Hmm...

"Tenten-chan, do you remember a certain guy who basically looked like me in clothing, but bigger and had his face covered up? Back when you were staying with me in my apartment?"

Her eyes looked up to her forehead in deep thought. "Kinda. What about him? Is he real? I mean, I thought he was just a dream-"

"He once told me that he put some kinda seal on you, claiming that it was to 'fix' you. I mean, do you feel any different, or..." His voice trailed off. "Take off your headband."

"What? Why?" She asked, completely befuddled. "What's wrong?"

"I just need to see your forehead." He stopped walking, and she did as well, although she was reluctant. Really, why did he want to see that? She untied the bands gingerly before pulling it off. Not even a second after, Naruto came up closer to her and squinted, making her even more curious as to what this was all about.

"So?"

Naruto nodded. "Yep. You've got a seal. It's basically a circle, and it has the word 'Empath' on it." He allowed her a moment to look into her reflection. Once she did, she gasped.

"What the hell? How did...but...huh?"

"From your reaction, is it fair to say that it's your first time seeing it?" Naruto said not too unkindly. It sounded a bit snobbish, but he really didn't mean it. It could have been a deep-seated jealousy of her for having a hitherto to be known ability one he didn't own. Did she turn into a lie detector overnight? Was it developing and there was more?

"No shit. What gave it away?" She deadpanned.

"Sorry." He allowed her to put her headband again, and was nearly scared out of his wits when she told him that she felt paranoid.

Obviously, the ability was getting stronger. While he could see that quite a few of the birdlike creatures were watching them, he didn't even feel paranoid himself when any normal person should have been, regardless if you knew of a thing's presence or not was staring at you.

Then they heard the rapid sounds of footfalls, characterized by the sounds of claws against the hard ground.

Something...or more than likely _somethings_ , was rapidly approaching them.

The pair tensed, ready for the fight of their lives.

...

...

"It's got me! GET IT OFF!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs as he felt the teeth of the creatures that had pounced on him.

"Get off-a me!" Tenten wailed. "GET OFF-...wait a minute..." She heaved her upper half up from the ground to where she had been knocked, only to tilt off the small creatures that had been all over her belly, chest and face, yipping and nipping at her. "You've gotta be shitting me! _This_ is what I've been scared of?!" She firmly held up one of the creatures closer to her face and in brighter light so that she could see it better and for a minute, thought she was holding up a puppy. Upon closer observation, she realized that it must have been some other species that might be related to canines; this thing looked just like a dog pup but with a wider version of ears at the base. It was beginning to sprout sharp teeth that were yet still small from their root in pink gums and the pup was strewn with dark spots on its brown fur.

In fact, all the others that were still trying to nip her were like that. All were gambolling around like puppies normally did.

Then, her 'inner girl' melted when she regarded the pup in her arms that let it's tongue slightly hang from its mouth, and cocked his head to one side like a curious dog, watching her with large eyes. "Aawww!" She gushed.

"Help! I'm being attacked!" Naruto yelled comically. "I don't wanna die!" He cried anime tears, making his companion sweat-drop at the ridiculousness of the situation.

"Naruto-kun, it's fine. These things are just playful."

"Help-...what?" He gathered himself and sat up, and the pups tumbled off around him. "Oh...heh heh." He picked one up much like Tenten had, and it snapped at his finger. "Ow! This one's a little demon! He kept on trying to disfigure me!" His finger bled a bit, and Naruto swore that the pup started laughing at him. "Why, I ought-a..."

Tenten ignored his next bit in favour of returning her attention to the pups. The little rascals were climbing all over her, playing with each other and practically using her body as the fighting arena. She didn't really sense any ill intent from them, but she got the feeling that there was more.

Where were the parents? What if the parental figures came and mauled her just for being around their young? It was a major if, but she decided to pay attention to it. "Alright you guys, you best get back to your parents. Go on." She shooed them off of her person and stood up, but as soon as she turned her back, a shock ran through her when she thought she heard:

"Aww. We don' wan-na!" The voices was multiple and in unison, and rather chibi-like in pitch and style of age. Her neck creaked as if it were resting on rusty hinges as she turned back to the pups, and they continued. "Don'cha wan-na play?"

Her jaw dropped.

Naruto didn't react much differently from her. "Holy crap!" 'Kurama, you seeing and hearing this?'

The beast in its cage nodded. **"These things gotta be some kinda summons' children. That explains their power of speech, but you'd better leave 'em the hell alone. Summon parents tend to get territorial of their young ones, and we're still not entirely sure what they are. I mean, what if these things start spitting acid or some shit like that?"**

"Good point," Naruto answered out loud. "Tenten-chan, we'd better leave them before their parents try to nab us." He looked around and thought he could see the parents close by, but something about the library felt off. It was like two paintings lined up to each other, and he was looking them through them both at the same time as one picture. Or like two things occupying the same space. It was messing with his dojutsu a bit. It's like he saw one of the settings if his dojutsu had been off, and another one while it was on at the same time.

It was almost like seeing a fake experience of a genjutsu and _through_ a genjutsu at the same time.

 **(AN: Or like 'The Lens of Truth' from 'The Legend of Zelda'.)**

But that didn't explain how Tenten just accidentally stepped onto the tail of one of the larger creatures, but it _also_ looked like she just stepped onto flat ground, the latter when he turned his dojutsu **off**.

It was puzzling.

"We'd better get out of here, quick," he mumbled. "I must be going mental..."

" **It would be a comforting thing to think you're going mad. But in the event that this was real...what would your reaction be?"**

Naruto shook his head. 'Geez, Kurama, that was kinda disturbing. Where did that come from?'

" **...Naruto...that was NOT me. I'm speaking to you from inside your head..."**

Meanwhile, Tenten was looking past Naruto and her eyes widened and her complexion paled in terror. Naruto saw it, and he realized what Kurama was saying.

" **That voice came from BEHIND you."**

The Uzumaki turned slowly and gawked when he saw one of the very same large creatures last night, standing 20 feet tall at the shoulder and sure to be twice that long from head to rear. Its eyes glinted a pale yellow from light reflected from its retinas, and it's maw was filled with large and rather threatening-looking teeth. In fact, Naruto had no idea how this creature had the ability to steal up to him from behind.

" **Greetings, humans,** " the creature spoke in a voice not too unlike the Kyuubi's. **"I hope the cubs weren't a bother?"**

Tenten struggled to find her voice past the unintentional self-imposed block in her throat. She didn't sense any ill-intent in the over-sized animal or summon or whatever in front of her, but it's intimidating appearance was doing its job too well. "...Um...hello? The... _cubs_ weren't a bother at all... In fact, they were a good reception..." She grinned lopsidedly, hoping that she wouldn't offend the beast, and the smile it obviously tried to give was well intentioned. If only it didn't look like a snarl, then it would have been better on the pair's nerves.

" **Good to hear. Good to hear. By any chance, do you know why the two of you are here?"**

Naruto was still cautious of the beast's prerogative, and inched just a bit away from it. The creature noticed and laughed. It did so for a bit too long, and both Naruto and Tenten had to wonder what was so funny.

" **Don't worry! If I wanted you dead, then I would have killed the both of you last night! It's actually the other pioneers you have to worry about... like the Goanna Pioneer. That Komodo dragon wanted very badly to eat you, girl, and the Jackal Pioneer wanted you, boy."** The creature seemingly nodded in each of their directions as it indicated them in its speaking of 'girl' and 'boy'. **"I had to use my veto authority to get them to leave you alone. But they still got to eat something regardless, as they may have gotten rid of more of the town's 'rubbish' a few hours ago-"**

"Goddamn it, I knew it!" Naruto yelled in an outburst in enthusiasm, before his eyes narrowed into a glare. "You better take that diss back, or I'll **make** you..." He pulled out his tanto from off of his back and got into his stance.

"Naruto-kun, what are you doing?!" Tenten hissed. "Are you trying to piss him off? If anything, it sounded like he vouched for us to live last night! Maybe he wants to set us free or something!" In the meantime, the creature looked about ready to giggle, but stayed silent, looking on in amusement.

"Tenten-chan, don't you realize? He basically just admitted it!" Naruto frowned like a thunderstorm. "It's obvious now!"

"What are you talking about?"

"They think you're **trash**." He uttered in fury as he kept his eyes on the beast in front of him. "They think you're **broken.** "

Tenten was silent as her crush continued to speak, her mentality and cognition beginning to fail as he streamed his words. "These summons or whatever they are, _think_ that you're **rubbish** , and that you're good for nothing else except as fodder to be thinned out from 'good' people. That's why they basically haunt here. Why they prey on the wicked here. They're predators who basically destroy garbage, but the problem was...they thought that you were one. Well **FUCK THAT**!" He yelled into the face of the beast, although he was mostly speaking to the girl who was a ways behind him. "You know that you're not! You went through a lot of bullshit when you were younger, sure, but instead of being like the insufferable people from this town, you're all the better for it!"

Tenten's heart began swelling with happiness when she heard all of this, and at once, felt better in all of who she was. She had had some questions as to how she was developing, and her seemingly unescapable past that kept haunting her through nightmares, memories or psychology reports, but now, they felt like none of that was important anymore. She felt...free.

It was a good feeling.

Other creatures started stirring and began trickling into the general area where the three were, and the cubs who were gathered around Higurashi's feet. But Naruto didn't care; he was venting still. "But if your past defines who and what you are, then me...I must be Garbage Kid number one on the Kill List. It can't be as black and white as to what we've done that defines us! Its goodly intentions, having a clean spirit and conscience that does. Not those who kill and destroy, and do it to those they believe deserve it because of their past deeds."

" **So...does that mean that you're trying to insult me, and all of my Scavenging kind here?"** The beast before him spoke.

"We know how the saying goes..." Naruto answered dangerously. "Those who get offended...are usually those it applies to."

The degree of the mood dropped considerably from a warm form of amicability to frigid temperatures. Tenten and Naruto felt like a fight was about to break out, and the more the silence grew, the likelihood began to increase.

Then something happened.

Overhead chandeliers erupted into brighter flames, and the dim light became significantly brighter, almost incandescent.

Tenten didn't have the luxury that 'Focus' afforded to Naruto, and so naturally her eyes took a while to adjust to the light. But once it cleared, she saw a medley myriad of creatures, large and small occupy the whole library portion they were in, which now seemed supersized by the height of how far up the ceiling was and how far back it extensive it was towards other sections. In fact, she believed that she had a third-person perspective for a brief moment, and she could tell that the place was a big as Konoha and more of the same types of summons occupied them as well. How she could think that, she had no idea; however, she knew it to be true.

Then she was back in her own body, and she stared at all the creatures surrounding them. She briefly considered her seals, and wondered what she had in her arsenal besides explosive tags that could fight off the hordes.

...

" **All right, everyone calm yourselves!"** A new voice announced from far off, somewhere higher up. A black form coasted down from above, and both genin realized it to be a carrion crow when it came close enough for observation and alighted easily on a sturdy bookcase. A supersized one, at that, as whereas a typical one was small, this one looked large enough for an adult person to ride, or stand comfortably on its back at the very least. **"At ease!"** Its voice was a bit shrill, but still not hard to listen to. **"There's no need for violence. Pioneer Haiyena, you and I had them brought here, didn't we?"**

" **Pioneer Kur** **ō,"** the now named Pioneer Haiyena acknowledged. **"That is true, but the boy is taking offense to what is the truth."**

"It's not," Naruto muttered. Both of the largest creatures there heard, and the considered the boy's input.

" **Well, I heard his argument. As much as I believe in what we stand for, what the boy says is logical. Besides, if the girl's here, wouldn't that mean that she's not of use?"**

Tenten was silent. She had absolutely no idea on what to make of this.

" **And if she is of use, doesn't that mean that she isn't any sort of fallow?"**

The Hyena Pioneer nodded. The crow was right in that regard. But the lad who had practically dissed all that they stood for needed some sort of punishment. But following his fellow Pioneer's logic, he could not, after all. **"I suppose. But what of the boy? His slip of the tongue must cost him something."**

Naruto remained stalwart. He was still searching for an exit, but sadly, there wasn't any.

" **We should let him be. It's important that everyone expresses their opinion. And he wasn't insulting us, he was defending the girl. Although he could have been less tempestuous and gone without the use of the threat. He must care for her greatly to challenge you, one who is multiple times his own body size, not to mention bodily advantages like fangs, pain tolerance and mass and the support of your own faction if the worse came to worst."**

Pioneer Haiyena had to hand it to his fellow Pioneer. He was extremely persuasive even when he knew himself to be stubborn; after all, it was in his nature to. Kurō had read the most during their stay in the library; he had the least to do, although the Hyena Faction mostly slept and gambolled with their young.

Kurō was a brilliant orator.

" **Fine. In any case, why don't you talk to them. Tell them what we want."** The quadrupedal Pioneer suggested. **"You're far more talented at speaking than I do. Besides, I have duties to attend to...I myself have not eaten as yet."** Without another word, the summon ambled off, while all followed suit in their own ways in their own separate directions. Kurō nodded, and briefly thought about all the years they had spent here. Elsewhere, anywhere, even their own original realm would be a good change of pace. He turned his head to peer at the genin still looking around with one eye, and he took note of the blond boy's eyes. He had never before seen eyes like that in reality, fiction or non-fiction, and he found his curiosity piqued. Perhaps the Hyena Pioneer was on to something when he had allowed both these children to live...that wasn't easily done, as the beast was nearly hungry all the time. To have them in his power and yet still save them meant that he yearned for his mate even more than he (Kurō) had imagined.

" **Now then, children. Follow me, and stay close. Also, please keep an open mind."**

Aforementioned genin looked sceptic, but from suggestion from Kurama to Naruto in the affirmative, the lad then nodded discreetly to Tenten that they should oblige.

...

...

...

"So you're all summon creatures?" Tenten asked after she heard the explanation from their guide whose walk was more of a hop and step in front of them. Only its size kept it in the lead, by giving it larger legs and stride by addition. The Higurashi paid some attention to him, but she kept getting distracted easily. She eyed the numerous bookcases and reading sections that had some of the creatures frequenting them. She saw more of the same and more species of the original quadrupedal host, flies, large reptiles with slavering jaws and supersized birds that looked at their guests sideways as their heads and field of vision permitted.

" **Ah, my child. That we are. We've been here for a full century. Well, almost a century. That unfortunate centennial is in a few days."**

"Unfortunate?" The Uzumaki asked. He still absentmindedly searched for an escape route, although he had to admit he had far more attention invested in this discussion.

" **Yes. This isn't our original home. We have an actual realm, but we, the Pioneers and almost all the others went scouting in this world to find new range to hunt, feed, raise families and the like. There's always a problem when predators outnumber prey, you see. We came here to let what few prey remain to replenish, and suffice to say...** _ **adapted.**_ **"**

"By killing and eating people?"

" **Well, if it weren't for my influence and reasoning that we should, per se, kill the ones who deserved it, then this particular predicament would have been worse, a we probably would have been killing and eating everyone. This town isn't our only haunt. But in recent years, the town has harboured more and more despicable people, and our hunger increased. We don't even venture far out without coming across someone that needed disposing."**

"Your rationalization is sound," Naruto agreed. "And the reason you do it on humans is because you don't want to create the same problem as before. But why do you bemoan why you're here, and how do we fit into this?"

" **Simple. We want to go back home. We need a summoner, that is,** _ **you**_ **, to sign the contract we've made and then release us from service. I've been planning this for a long time, and I'm sure it would work. We just need someone with the chakra reserves large enough to pull off the task. They would summon us to their location, and we'd get sent back home by default. I've been discussing this with my fellow Pioneer, Haiyena, and he's agreed, as well as the others. He's not easily persuaded, but I think he's been growing desperate for home. I'm doing this mostly for him, you see, for his mate is back home."**

"And they've been separated for almost a century," Naruto realized. "That's tragic."

" **Indeed. It's even more painful to see others of his faction live with their own mates here, and he, the leader here, left to be alone."** After he said this, Kurō somehow managed to pluck a book off of the ground with his beak and inserted it into an empty space on the bookshelf close by and regarded the children, as it looked as if Tenten wanted to ask something.

"You said 'faction'. How many of you are there?" She queried in a tone she hoped was polite.

" **There are six factions, my child. There's the crow faction, of which I have leadership over in this place, Pioneer Haiyena of the Hyenas, Pioneer Tokage of the Goannas, Pioneer Jakkaru of the Jackal faction, Pioneer Hagewashi of the Vulture faction and Pioneer Tobu of the Insect faction." (1)**

" **Must be quite a few of them here,"** Kurama reasoned to his host. **"They must have been multiplying here. But in all of this, if most of them are here and a few are back in their original realm, then the prey must outnumber them again, as they've had a hundred years to breed."**

Naruto understood all of this now. "I see. So is that why the summoning contract was out in the open? In the hopes that we'd sign it?"

" **That's true. A bit underhanded, and it was done by Pioneer Haiyena. He had good reason to. He thought that desperation and curiosity would have driven you to sign it to enter the service. But you didn't, so he tried to engage you in conversation. Mind you, he's not of bad intentions, but his own nature drives him to go about his acts the wrong way. After all, who would want to sign a contract with 'despicable creatures that know no mercy'?" (2)**

It wasn't the first time that the boy was hearing this phrase, and he was frank; he already felt some sort of kinship with these summons already. Besides, he might be able to get something out of it. Which reminded him...

"So if I sign it and send you all home _over time_ , mind you," he said carefully. "Does this mean that I'd be able to summon any of you should the need arise?"

" **Of course. We of the more** _ **benevolent**_ **factions have decided that it would be an honest payment."**

"So, what about Tenten-chan? Does she get to sign too, if she wants to? She seemed to take a liking to the cubs from earlier?" Naruto remarked mischievously, much to the bun-haired girl's surprise.

"Shouldn't that be _my_ choice?" She protested.

" **Of course it is. But why wouldn't you?"**

She tried to think of a reason after this, but perchance of seeing Naruto's willingness to go through with this madness, she decided to follow suit. 'Oh well, why the hell not.' "I'd like to meet the other Pioneers first before making up my mind. Could you take us to them? And in the meantime, tell us why you all live in a library..."

...

...

...

" **...And so since it is in our nature to scavenge and use what's practical and destroy the rest, we did just that to any and all books and scrolls over the years we came across. This half-empty library was large enough to house us when we first came, and we merely added to it over the years. Well, mostly the Crow and Hyena factions, that is. This library is the best of the best, or it would be, had we not littered it with our dung, sad to say. Pity that most of the younger ones can't hold it until they reached outside. Anyway, we're here."**

Kurō ceased his locomotion of hops and struts to and dramatically gestured to the hub in front of them. The children stared at the dozens of species of the factions milled about, busying themselves with bones, talking to one another, playing, reading and largest of who were conversing to one another. One looked like a massive lizard with slavering jaws with a rough-n'-tough hide the size and length of the ground floor of an apartment building, a man-sized bluebottle fly that flitted here and there, a vulture four times the size of Kurō that perched on a thick concrete fixture that was set up, and what appeared to be a large dog that was even bigger than Haiyena . However, it was brown and had a black back like a cape, and had perked up, straight ears. Both boy and girl tried to keep their cool.

" **Fellow Pioneers,"** Kurō hailed. **"I brought the humans here who wish to sign the contract to meet you all. Their names are Uzumaki Naruto and Higurashi Tenten."** The crow nodded to the genin to tell them to give their courtesies, and they obliged, feeling quite intimidated by the sheer size and large-scale encounters with aforementioned creatures. Especially the reptile for Tenten and for what Naruto assumed was the jackal, as Haiyena had told them earlier that they had wanted to make a meal of them last night.

" **Good morning,"** the gigantic fly replied in a buzzing tone. **"We hope you slept well."**

" **Considering..."** a passer-by hyena mumbled before beginning to cackle. He was shooed away by the Jackal Pioneer who merely regarded the boy as if for the first time.

" **Is Pioneer Haiyena sure that this boy has the chakra clout necessary to send us back?"**

" **No. I am,"** Kurō answered. **"In any case, let us all interact. I'm sure that even a bit of camaraderie would do us all some good, wouldn't you agree?"**

 **=X=X=**

Shiarta roused his weary bones from his pallet and yawned. The old librarian was sure that the days were getting longer and the nights were getting shorter. No matter, the aging man mused. He could always take a nap in the daytime. Maybe even several.

He shuffled from his room in the back and entered into the library to begin opening up for the day. He was late already; it was nine am, or a little past the hour. He should have opened an hour earlier, but today was one of those days that he couldn't find the motivation to get out of bed early enough. Besides, no one would be coming anyway. The library was just a building with books with no one to patronize them.

Except for those two boys who were 'clones'. They reminded him of the Yondaime. Always reading and whatnot. They read constantly, and they were at it for a year and a bit now. He'd never thought if it possible to read out the entire library, but the two blond kids who looked alike in his dimming vision looked like they were actually pulling it off.

In fact, they looked just like the Yondaime too, the two of them did. The only difference was that the Yondaime was older.

"Done!" "Done!" The exclamatory cries came, and not without massive hints of relief. The old man turned to them in surprise, in shock even.

"What?! You're done?!"

"Yeah, old man!" Both of them yelled in unison.

Shiarta scratched at his temple and nicked at a wart on accident. In a grimace of pain, he told the boys that he had a book or two around the back. He cautioned them that it was only a small book, and he was holding onto it for the Hokage himself.

"What? The Hokage? The Sandaime gave you this book?"

"Nah, I think it was Yondaime-sama," the man said at last. "The Third only came here to read poetry and that was a long time ago. The Yondaime used to send clones to come and read here, and one night, he came and told me to hold unto this one for him, like reserve it for him to read whenever he came around. I don't think I should give you, but you said last year that he passed on. Maybe you should just take it, just so you can _properly_ brag about how you read out the contents of the whole library."

The clones shared a look with one another, mentally exchanging thoughts. It was after a minute before one of them spoke. "What's it called?"

"'The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja'. I'll go get it."

And so the old man shuffled off to do what he had no idea was preordained by incidence of the Fourth Hokage himself.

 **=X=X=**

Naruto strode up to the stand with Tenten in close tow. "They're easy to get along with, although the Jackal Pioneer seems reluctant for me to sign.

" **Perhaps it's because of the Kyuubi sealed in you** ," Kurō suggested. **"He could feel intimidated by it, as he's always felt a bit insecure. But don't tell him I said that."**

"You don't have to worry about that," Tenten agreed. "But how did you even catch on about the Kyuubi?"

" **I saw it easily. Not only I see do I see physical things extraordinarily well, but I believe that I see genjutsus for what they really are, as well as constructs of chakra. Namely, your chakra coils for example. I'm also able to create manifestations of the very same."** The crow's brownish-red eyes seemingly glowed before he smirked. Somehow, he did, although he had a beak, not a mouth.

"So that was you? I was wondering what the hell was up with this place." He bit his index finger and wrote his name in the book with reckless abandon. Tenten did the same, and wondered if she would be able to benefit much from the contract.

" **Ah yes. I was actually testing you, you see. I was wondering what your eyes were capable of."**

"I saw everything in my field of vision. I even saw _through_ whatever fabrication you put up," Naruto remarked, although he was trying not to boast.

"You still haven't told me how that dojutsu works," Tenten reminded him. "C'mon, please? Is it like the Byakugan?"

"Yes and no," came the boy's succinct reply. "Maybe later. Anyway, where's the exit? Everyone must be getting worried. I bet that they think that one of you guys must've killed us and ate us."

" **Very well. Follow me. Oh... before I forget...you, hyena cub,"** he regarded one of the larger bumbling cubs that had taken to Tenten and was close at her heels. **"You shall accompany our two new summoners to explain to their team what has been happening. How old are you?"**

" **One,"** the dog-sized cub answered in light voice. **"And a half."**

" **That's fine. You have enough cognition to vouch for us."**

"You're hoping that its cuteness will convince them that the town wasn't haunted by monsters?" Naruto deadpanned with a sweat-drop.

" **Spot on."** came the crow's reply. As soon as he did, he released his control of a special illusion he had over the wall behind the summoning contract/book and it wavered away, revealing a massive tunnel with daylight on the far end. **"Safe travels, young ones. Do you still have the scroll I gave you?"**

Tenten patted her hip-pocket where the scroll was. "The one on how to summon? Yeah."

" **I expect you to learn how to summon us properly within a month or two,"** Kurō cautioned. **"Any longer than that and my suggestion that we switch to animal prey temporarily might go for naught. Now then, please be on your way."**

"I still get to come back here somehow or other, right?" Naruto asked, before Tenten grabbed his arm and yanked him along with her. While she couldn't say that she disliked the company of the Scavengers, she still felt put off that they had thought her to be garbage. She didn't feel that way anymore, and besides, if the most important person to her could tell her what he thought (in high esteem,) who was she to listen to bunch of summon creatures?

"Let's just go, Naruto-kun. Just forget about the books, m'kay?" She released his hand and he caught up to her to walk at her side, a bewildered look on his face. "They're not the main prerogative right now."

"Nani?! Do you know how important those are?! Vast histories, killer jutsus and, confirmed conspiracies, secrets and-"

"Forget it! Let's go!" She chanced a look at the Hyena cub in front of her and wondered how fast it was to keep before her in speed, as it was significantly smaller than her in stature. "And what's your name? Do you have one?" She asked aloud to it; she knew it could speak.

" **Not yet,"** it replied. **"We normally choose our own names when we reach two years of age. Technically adulthood by the old ways, I think. Why do you ask?"**

"No reason. Well, I don't know what to call you."

" **I suppose 'Hyena' would suffice,"** the now self-named Hyena suggested.

"A hyena named 'Hyena'? How original," Naruto mumbled. **(3)**

"It's enough," Tenten intercrossed. "Besides, Hyena's not staying for long. She or...he's only coming along to explain. But shouldn't we be walking ahead of you? You don't know where to go."

" **I'm female, and yes, I do. I've been outside twice now to hunt with tou-sama and oba-chan. The last time, in fact, was when tou-sama said we should 'decimate' 'the man who was stealing from his people'. I think his name was...hmm..."**

"Shomo?" Naruto offered.

" **Yes. That's the name."**

Naruto and Tenten shared a glance with each other before turning back to the summon. "When we get there, don't tell anyone about that. In fact, try to act...puppy-ish?" The weapon's mistress said unsurely.

"Act the way you are," Naruto insisted. "Or they'll think that you're lying. You're a bit ignorant now, so maybe they'll forgive your kind because of that. And if they try to get physical, we'll stop them."

" **I can take care of myself. I** _ **am**_ **a hyena, after all."**

The genin had a hard time taking the hyena seriously, mainly because currently, it was no bigger than a dog.

 **=X=X=**

"There they are!" Kiba exclaimed. "I told you that we didn't have to worry about them, Hinata!" The boy's ninken yipped excitedly in agreement, and the Hyuuga heiress smiled.

"I knew they'd be fine." Came her lie. It killed her for not having more faith, but they had better have a fantastic tale to tell to be gone out so long. Sure, she was allowed to worry, but to fret that they were more than likely hurt or worse, not to mention that she had started to entertain foolish thoughts that the pair might've have eloped or being paranoid of some kind of romantic fling? Pathetic.

Then there was that dog that was tailing close behind them and sniffing at every new scent. Well, _dog-like_. She had never seen a breed like that before, all spotted like that, not to mention having a lower rear end than it's body, yet having the air of a territorial and formidable animal. And the way Akamaru was acting up as soon as it came up within the pup's range was sure to be a bad sign. Akamaru was normally...social with other canines, if his happy barks whenever they came around was any indication. Kiba also started mumbling how the animal smelt strange, with whatever alpha it had marking it and the odour of urine...and blood.

All the other genin present who saw them began fussing over the developing situation in their own respective fashions, so much so that it attracted Gai's attention where he had been supervising Lee in his training. The jounin's eyes narrowed when he saw Tenten in particular, scrutinizing her. She didn't look anything out of the ordinary, so maybe there really hadn't been any sort of...'body exploration' the night before.

Well, someone had to worry about these things, right? He knew that the man at the orphanage was like a father to her, and Gai felt a responsibility to all of his students-...some more than others, that is. Neji had his own issues to sift through.

"Tenten! Naruto!" He hailed in his 'outdoors voice', the one typically used for amicability. "Where have you been?"

"Restaurants, haunted forests, dark and dank libraries and rocky tunnels." Came her short response. "I had a rough night."

Gai's eyes widened in disbelief. Before anyone could see that his mind was slipping up by means of misinterpretation, he decided that he needed more info. "And why's that?"

By now she had reached her teacher, and after a poke from Naruto that told her to speak, she elbowed him in the ribs in reprisal, while hissing to him a loud 'no'. She then pointed at the dog-like thing behind her that was looking up at the two genin with it's head cocked curiously, wondering why Tenten was pointing at it.

"Um, Hyena," Naruto said anxiously to the creature. "Tell Gai-sensei what's been going on."

"Um, Naruto-san? Why are you telling the strange looking dog to speak?" Lee asked, befuddled, while his jounin teacher was no better off. "What's wrong?"

The Taijutsu teacher frowned. "I agree with Lee. Why? Can't you tell me yourself?"

"Well, I can, but you'd never believe me if I told you." Naruto answered. He was growing a bit impatient, as he badly wanted to just go home and be done with this whole mission; it had been nothing but complicated, especially personally. He wanted to just go home and sleep for a month. He turned again to the hyena cub and urged it to speak, but it seemed to delight in making him squirm by not complying.

This scum by now had attracted the attention of the members of team ten and the last two of team 8 to come over, as well as Kiba and Sakura of team 7. They crowded around and made so much cumulative noise that it nearly drove Naruto insane.

He was starting to learn just how stubborn hyenas could be.

"That mongrel can't talk!" Kiba argued. "I mean come on, only my mom's ninken can talk and he's a special case."

"I've seen some strange things while I've been on this team," Shino answered. "Perhaps it really can speak, even if it's not in a language you can understand. You can't understand my kikaichu's body language, and I can't tell what Akamaru says to you."

"But Kiba speaks 'dog', right? So he should understand it," Sakura shot back.

"It's not doing anything, it's just standing there."

"Maybe it's scared?" Ino suggested. "Stop crowding it and let's see if it does anything."

"Troublesome woman, you just want us to give you space so you can get to it closer."

"Hey, hey!" A newcomer yelled as he came within shouting distance. "What's with all the racket?" All eyes turned to regard the chain-smoking teacher of team ten, and everyone snapped to attention more or less. "I can't leave for fifteen minutes without..." The man stopped and looked at what looked like a species of canine with interest. "You guys arguing about a dog? What's all this about?"

" **I don't know what everyone's going on about,"** Hyena answered innocently, as if ignorant of all the proceedings 'till now. This drew silence from everyone present, until...

"I told you so," Naruto boasted.

Cue bedlam.

 **=X=X=**

"What?" Mayor Risaikuru scratched his head. "You mean to tell me that these...'creatures'," he pointed at the Hyena that sat on the ground in front of him, "were killing off what they believed were 'bad' townsfolk? I don't know if I should be giving them medals or calling in ninjas from villages to hunt them down or something. I understand the motive, but to kill them and eat them is altogether too violent and extreme. A prison sentence would have been enough. I even had a case against Shōmō about his embezzling, but then he got murdered. Now, we have no case, not even a body to give his family. Not to mention, the prostitute. I hate the practice, but a killing and a eating? I wouldn't wish it on anyone."

" **We were very hungry, and many times, tou-sama had to tell the others that we should leave the good people alone,"** Hyena said a bit too cutely for what she was actually saying. It was as if she could honey-coat the idea of murdering with her blissful ignorance alone. This made Naruto believe all too readily why the crow summon chose such a young ambassador to speak for them. Perhaps an older one would have been too assertive and made a mess of things between humans and the rest of the scavengers.

"Well..."

"They did kill that drug dealer and saved that man's life, right?" Tenten argued. "The man was your friend right? We could give them that much. And they've only targeted the worst of the worst."

"To be brutally frank, Risaikuru-sama, your town is like a breeding ground and rearing farm for very _undesirable_ people." Naruto said matter-of-factly.

"Naruto! Show some respect!" Asuma barked, before turning to the mayor. "I apologize for his behaviour-"

"No, Asuma, there's no need." The mayor took up a handheld mirror and gazed into it. "All it took was two years in office to make me go from black hair to salt. And you remember me from your first time on this very same mission in this thrice damned place-...I bet I look older than your father, and I'm only ten years older than you."

"..." Asuma was silent, contemplating what the man was saying. It would probably be what his own father loved to say to himself.

"I'm getting too old for this shit."

The Sarutobi shook his head in amusement. "Ah well. So what's going to happen? You heard...um, what's your name, again?" He asked the summon who was watching the proceedings.

" **I have no name, yet, so I'm adopting the name of what I am for now."**

"Which is..."

"' **Hyena'."**

"I still have no idea what kind of summon that is," Gai complained. "'Hyena'? I wonder what they're capable of, not to mention the Sandaime will want to know. We can't just go back with some message from a summon that they won't kill anyone for two months. This needs to stop."

" **I don't think tou-sama and the others can go without food,"** Hyena answered as it leapt down off the desk and sniffed around to keep itself occupied. **"Besides, I think we're supposed to go home soon anyway."**

Asuma's head began to ache. After all these years of non-closure to his first time on this mission had finally been cleared...and now it was leaving behind an even bigger hole that needed filling. At first, it was all about people being murdered, leaving nothing behind but bloodstains. Now, on this mission, somehow with Naruto's involvement, complications had come virtually out of nowhere. It turned out that whoever or rather _whatever_ , had been killing 'bad' people and eating them to feed themselves because they were by nature, **Scavengers**. Scavengers (animals) generally ate dead, decaying things, like carrion. But by all characteristics, as were these summons, found use for any little thing, reusing trash, recycling waste to make something productive out of it, and reduce... they killed the weak, the diseased, the slow, the poison and banes of the world. Like maggots, for example. In most case, maggots only ate decaying flesh, which was why one normally found them in dead bodies, rather than in the living, no matter if you had leprosy or some detestable illness, they ate only the diseased material. The benefit? They fed themselves.

That was no different than this scenario. They killed the bad that was harming the good.

But what made this mission complicated was that the tale that Naruto and Tenten had to recount was by no means mind-blowing. Different 'factions' of summoning beasts that went under the classification of 'Scavengers'. Reptiles, quadrupedal species, birds, flies. Then from those main ones you had different kinds of each, something that the kids had no time to find out more about, but were able to distinguish them by appearances and behaviour.

The descriptions? Nothing he had ever seen before. Well, except for birds, but they had unnatural sizes, the likes of which were not to be found in nature.

Perhaps Kurenai was right. Naruto did make missions complicated by carrying out several acts in it. But if one thing was sure, he got the job done. These creatures were making some sort of pact by requesting favours from Tenten and Naruto.

Naruto had his part to play; he was to become their summoner. Tenten signature? Why did they want her to sign it?

When she was asked, the girl answered that it was her secret to keep. Not even Naruto himself knew, but he had his suspicions what Kurō had told her.

And he was grateful. Kami knew that he told her exactly what she needed to hear.

That she was useful. That as much as like the discarded blades she found around training grounds were sharpened again by her own efforts, she could become worthwhile once more. She had never been a broken person to begin with, and besides, even if she was, she could expend her talents and esteems elsewhere. Anything could and can be useful if you used it right.

They (the Scavengers) were demonstrating that they found her venerated.

She needed no more recognition than that.

 **=X=X=**

The library clone reading the book put down the book at last. "Well, that's that. It was a light read, considering all the heavy shit we had to do over the course of the whole year. Damn, my head hurts something fierce."

"That's fine, we've gotta dispel now anyway, our job is done. I mean damn, we could have been made for some grand purpose, but instead, we had to be reading," the second clone answered with a sigh. "How was the book anyways? Any reason why the Yondaime would read it?"

"Well, I think it was fine. Although the fact that the main protagonist's name was 'Naruto', just like ours. Strange. And the guy who wrote it, 'Jiraiya', was the student of the Sandaime and taught the Fourth, too."

"Think there's a connection?" The second clone raised his eyebrow in tandem. "Kinda far-fetched, ain't it?"

"There has to be a connection, but I don't know where," the first one replied. "Let's just dispel and be done with it. We're not here to think and mull over potential connections and crap. We're here to read, and we're done."

"All life is precious," his companions said sagistically. He slapped his forehead in exasperation. "Geez, why the hell did I talk like that?"

"Too many books." The first clone replied. He looked to the old librarian seated in his high stool and leaning against his desk, nodding off into slumber slowly but surely. "Yo! Old man! We're leaving now! Do you need anything before we go?"

"Just let me sleep in peace. Hmm...wait a minute, where's the book anyways? The Yondaime's? Give it back." Shiarta called out in a rasping tone.

The clone got up and handed the book to the librarian, who placed it in a draw in his desk. "A'right boys, that's it. Take care."

The clones told the man a cheerful 'sayonara' before they dispelled, yielding up the knowledge of an entire library to all who could receive it.

 **-Well...shit. I guess we know what's about to happen, no don't we?**

 **-That's it for this chapter people. Although this was a bit of a mediocre chapter, the truth is, it was HIGHLY condensed. It just didn't seem fair to take so long to update on my present schedule and updating really relevant info so sparingly. So I took all that was important, and dropped it in front of you. Not a crappy update, you just got everything you needed to know. There won't even be a flashback to this arc, because there wasn't anything important omitted.**

 **-The first 5k was easy, but then I started getting my ass kicked with a website design project. All the scripting is driving me insane! That's my excuse for the tardy update.**

 **-Now for those numbers:**

 **1) I decided to go with six factions of Scavengers. Crows, vultures, hyenas, dingoes, goannas, insects.**

 **2)** **'Despicable creatures that know no mercy' is a phrase repeated heavily during this arc. It refers to the Scavengers, and the people who nearly beat Naruto to death on his tenth birthday.**

 **3)** **A hyena named 'Hyena'. (Yes, Naruto. A hyena named 'Hyena'. If only he knew that it was also the Pioneer's name. See below in the name listing.**

 **-The theme from chapter 30 'till the end of this one has been...you guessed it!**

 **Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.**

 **I mean come on; I've been basing the whole fic about ideals so...uh huh. You saw this coming.**

 **Let's take a look at those names for this arc. I won't explain other names, obviously. That's for the whole story's plot. Especially about a certain OC.**

 **Riyūsu Town: Reuse Town**

 **Gomi: Garbage (This was the drug dealer)**

 **Hafu & Warui: This was tricky, to those who were looking for it. 'H** **āfu' means 'half'. 'Warui' means 'Bad', basically. So combined, it means 'Half Bad'. H** **āfu and Warui were joint owners of the toy factory, but Warui had gotten killed by scavengers a long time ago. And Hāfu, while he did not sell out in the arc, was still more or less swayed by the idea. 'Half Bad' could also be used to describe the couple.**

 **Risaikuru: Recycle**

 **Shōmō: Reduce (this is one of the main uses of the word, although sometimes, it's synonymous with the word 'wastage')**

 **I guess now you see how I basically put the jingle into this arc.**

 **Kurō: Crow**

 **Haiyena: Hyena (Obviously)**

 **Tokage: Lizard (Goannas applies to Komodo dragons and the 'cool reptile scavengers' in my book) Jakkaru: Jackal (Again, a bit obvious)**

 **Hagewashi: Vulture**

 **Tobu: Fly (This is the verb, not the noun. But I wanted a simple name for you guys)**

 **These names took some time to choose, but you won't have to worry about keeping track of them. I probably wouldn't be able to in your place. So if and when these guys reappear, they will always be referred by name and what they are. Example: Pioneer Tobu the bluebottle fly is the leader of the Insect Faction.**

 **See? I'm considerate.**

 **I supposed that's all, people. Thanks for sticking around so long. Now then, if you'll excuse me, I have to go design a navigational bar.**

 **P.S. - Does anyone reading this own a JTAG Xbox 360? Shoot me a PM if you want to play on the System Link. Weekends, that is.**

 **Don't judge me, readers! I have other hobbies, too!**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	39. Chapter 39

**Breaking Limits**

 **Well, I'm back. I hope you enjoy today's chapter.**

 **I figured it would be my way of bringing in the New Year.**

 **So...HAPPY NEW YEAR! May you have a productive and blessed year. Take a minute to appreciate it; there are so many of us didn't make it to this point, so let's be thankful. It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, healthy or sick...you still have a life to live, eyes to (see) read, literate to understand, sanity...we take these things for granted. So enjoy it to the fullest!**

 _ **Should auld acquaintance be forgot,**_  
 _ **and never brought to mind?**_  
 _ **Should auld acquaintance be forgot,**_  
 _ **and auld lang syne?**_

 _ **For auld lang syne, my jo,**_  
 _ **for auld lang syne,**_  
 _ **we'll take a cup o' kindness yet,**_  
 _ **for auld lang syne.**_

 _ **And surely ye'll be your pint-stoup!**_  
 _ **and surely I'll be mine!**_  
 _ **And we'll take a cup o' kindness yet,**_  
 _ **for auld lang syne.**_

 **You know, for those people who don't know anything past the first verse. I helped you out with two of them** _ **and**_ **the chorus. AULD LANG SYNE! (TIMES LONG PAST)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. In fact, I own little, but it teaches me to appreciate good things more whenever they happen to come by.**

 **39.**

Haku allowed the nurse to look over her arm to run a diagnostic jutsu on it with an air of patience. She knew she was already fully healed; she just needed to get a literal clean bill of health, so she could re-receive her ninja license. It wasn't much, as it was only to show that she was a 'reserve' ninja in times of dire need for more manpower or siege. Besides, it wasn't as if she was going to move around without that, her only source of identification in the village, by means of a card she could carry.

Identity was a must. If one didn't have some sort of paperwork that accredited them with identification, then they were liable to be treated as a suspicious person when they were found out, and 'suspicious persons' were usually spies or worse. Nothing less than a vouch from the most important people in the village like the clan heads, higher members of the council of the Hokage would keep them out of a jail cell or their head from being stuck on a pike. While she knew the Hokage would treat her right, she deemed it best not to abuse the man's authority, no matter how much he seemed eager to help them when she had first met him.

The Yuki hummed as she waited. She glanced at the clock that was just a ways in front of her on the wall, right where everyone in the hall could see it; it was now a little past four in the evening. Around this time, she would have started to put on a pot on the stove at the home she shared with her master to start preparing the supper. Today was the beginning of the days she was expecting Naruto to return, and wondered what stories he might bring. Not only that, but she was willing to admit that she missed having him around.

Having someone who actually found it in their heart to have her as a precious person before she did for them...that was saying something. Of course he hadn't said it to her; besides, everyone knew that actions spoke louder than words. It hadn't been too long, but she was sure that they were mid-process or had already bonded. She hadn't been the most educated, still had some starry-eyed romanticisms, but she honestly felt that in the short time she had known him, had already begun falling for the blond.

It had to be some sort of infatuation, because that was waaayyy to fast to be actually love...right? Right?!

Becoming his slave didn't feel like a mistake. Sure, the practice was frowned upon and such, and she was sure that her former master, Zabuza, despised what she had done. But ever since then, he (Naruto) had never treated her like one, and was always going out of his way to make sure she was comfortable. Zabuza never did that, although she knew that he (Zabuza) cared.

Instead of becoming his 'slave' (that had far more benefits than she had ever dared to expect; in fact, she expected no special treatment at all), she felt like she had stepped up into 'wife' duties. Housewife duties.

While she wouldn't mind, seeing as she despised killing, she still liked being a kunoichi.

The Yuki sighed. When her thoughts became muddled like this, she only came to realize that she was more 'cross-eyed' than she first thought. But maybe, just _maybe_ , her Naruto-sama felt the same way.

Wait. _Her_ Naruto-sama? 'Backtrack, Haku,' she tried to keep her thoughts on one track and from derailing. 'Remember _who_ owns _who_.'

' _That's right, Naruto-sama owns ALL of me..._ '

Her thoughts derailed.

The nurse finally wrapped up her analysis on the girl's wrist. "Alright, I guess that's it, Haku," she began as she tapped the girl's wrist twice as a double-check. "The bone has been fully set and corrected, no doubt due to your own explanation of healing yourself intensively ever since with the **Mystical Palm Technique**. Not even a sign of swelling; maybe you could become a nurse and help us out? Sometimes, I swear, we're just too undermanned. Or 'under **womanned** ', get it?" The nurse chuckled to herself at her own joke before she finally looked up from the girl's hand to her face, and was taken aback when she saw it comically reddened and what looked like smoke billowing from her ears, "Um...Haku...? Haku?" The nurse snapped her fingers in front of the girl's face, due to the fact that the girl looked like she was staring into space. "Ms. Yuki?"

"Call me _Mrs. Uzumaki_ ," the girl mumbled the answer to the nurse in a tizzy.

"Excuse me?" The nurse asked, completely confused.

"Hmm?" Haku finally came back to earth with what was her most intelligent answer at the time. "Did you say something?"

"I was saying that perhaps you could become a nurse," the woman said after a long while, still trying to figure out what had transpired. "Since you could heal yourself so well."

"Oh?" The ice user finally forced her crimson complexion above neck to recede by thinking about Gato; only the most despicable things about the man made her efforts successful. "It took me a while, and I nearly pushed myself to exhaustion daily, because I hated feeling like a part of me was useless." She rotated her hand at the wrist, gesturing to the nurse that she had full control over her own limb with no pain. "As for your request, um...I'll don't think so," she said at last. "I already have a full-time thing going on..."

"Really? What? You look kinda young to be working. Are you a kunoichi?"

"I used to be," Haku admitted, "but these days, I'm a..." She hesitated.

"Yeah?" The nurse said, waiting expectantly. "A what?"

"Errmm..." Haku was at a loss for words. She didn't really know what to call her 'job' besides what it was. She cleaned, washed, cooked and then some. "House helper?" She guessed, hoping it sounded acceptable enough. "It...um...pays enough?" She added lamely. She supposed that she was getting paid; her old master was still alive because Naruto (and the T13) had fulfilled the agreement for helping him, her new one was taking care of her and he afforded many benefits to her, not the least of which not ordering her to kill anyone.

Besides...who said payment was always meant to be in cash?

The nurse narrowed her eyes as she scrutinized the girl. A former kunoichi...now a house helper? Well, in what story would that be even remotely sensible enough to read? Before she could comment on it, a gurney with a fully grown man on it was pushed in through the double door entrance of the hospital with nurses and doctors fussing over him and a lot of children following them, making their displeasure heard. The nurse who was tending to Haku had to break away to join her colleagues in helping the unconscious man, particularly of that of assisting the orderlies to get rid of the children who were making a racket, before assisting the doctors themselves.

As the man was wheeled past her, Haku looked him over in the instant she had him in view. He didn't have any external wounds, so more than likely, it was a serious internal issue.

As Haku stood and watched, she realized that the nurse had neglected to give her a medical certificate that would have cleared her to get her license back. With a sigh, she sagged down back onto the bench behind her to wait on the nurse to return.

...

...

...

She had been thoroughly bored out of her mind. She had been sitting for over an hour now and Haku could say that she was impatient now. She had always considered herself to be a patient person (PUN), but hospitals, this one in particular, was trying it. She was healthy already, damn it!

The double doors opened once more, and this time, it was of a well-dressed clanswoman who was leading two men, both of which carried a man between them on a stretcher. When they came closer, Haku took note that the woman and her two companions all had grey, pupil-less eyes; Yuki had read up enough on the village's culture to know a Hyuuga Clan member when she saw one, but the woman in particular seemed to be particularly well off. Her clothing indicated as much, and the man on the stretcher appeared to be the polar opposite. In fact, he might as well have been a beggar dressed in rags.

That would explain why all the medical personnel who chanced a look at the man in the stretcher would upturn their noses and look away quickly, being leery of having to think of even aiding the unconscious man.

"I need some assistance here," the Hyuuga woman called politely to a nearby nurse, who ignored the woman who in favour began tending to someone else in the waiting room. Looking a bit disappointed, she called to another, who began doing the same thing to yet another patient.

This happened twice more, before one of the Hyuuga men holding the stretcher spoke up, "Hitomi-sama, perhaps you should pull superiority of class over them to get assistance? To be honest, these people are playing the part of fools." Hitomi shook her head in response, although in her head, she was starting to like the idea more and more as her patience ran thin.

Finally the nurse who had been attentive to Haku in the beginning returned and handed a clearance certificate to her. "Here you go, sorry I took so long."

Yuki took a deep breath and tried to muster a smile, although it came out rather fake. "It's fine." The nurse nodded back and was about to leave when Haku called to her. "Hold on. There's a man on the stretcher who needs help. Could you do something for him?"

The nurse cursed under her breath unnoticeably before turning to the Hyuugas. "Ah, Hyuuga-sama! What seems to be the problem?" She asked a bit too brightly.

"I have a man here that needs help. He fell unconscious while he was in my soup kitchen."

The nurse had to resist making a snide remark about food poisoning; to do so could be suicide both career-wise and literally. "Is it something he ate? Food allergy?" She quickly added as she pulled on a fresh pair of disposable gloves, a mandate she was glad to have. She checked the man's pulse and listened to his breathing rate and what else she could currently.

"He has no allergies I know of; this hasn't even been the first time since he's had the particular meal. He's been a regular for four years now."

"Let me get a doctor; he should have a stethoscope to listen to his heartbeat; perhaps even diagnose him." The nurse saw her chance to beat a hasty retreat. She didn't want to be the one to help a person who couldn't afford a medical bill, or catch something nasty from someone who lived on the streets.

"Please hurry. I'd hate for whatever that's happened to him to worsen. In fact..." Hitomi's eyes slightly narrowed. "Allow my clan members to follow you to the doctor. I'll pay for whatever cost may arise." She would be the first to admit that she thought the nurse would just leave without making good on her word. Besides, if worst came to worst, she'd just use her dojutsu and find a doctor herself. She wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty; it was only because her subordinates had told her that they would do it, seeing that if she had carried the man herself, it would have dragged the Hyuuga name in the dust.

The nurse was slightly miffed, but did as she must. She beckoned to the Hyuugas, and they soon carried the man off to get medical attention. Seeing them go off, Hitomi resigned herself to wait and sat on the bench beside Haku. The young ice-user decided to forgo getting up and decided to ask the woman what the problem was. Whatever had happened felt awfully similar to what had happened to the man who had come an hour before.

"I don't know what happened to him. He was sitting in the soup kitchen, and I though that he was sleeping. He had had his head down for three hours, before I decided to wake him up. This was brunch, you see."

"Please, go on." Haku urged. "I think this case was comparable to that of a man an hour earlier, who was flocked by children."

"I heard something about that on my way over," the woman replied. "People were speaking about how Masato, the orphanage owner was found in his bedroom, unconscious. No one knows how long he was like that. It could have been hours! The children must have thought that the man was oversleeping, and since he's always been so good to them, they didn't want to disturb. It was when it got late that they knocked and entered his room and tried to wake him up so as to make sure he didn't miss his duties that they realized that something was wrong."

"I hope he'll be fine. " Haku said with a frown. "That **they'll** be fine. He has an orphanage to run, and I'm sure that the man you brought in has people concerned for him, besides you, of course."

"Yes...excuse me, what is your name? I don't recall ever seeing you in the village before." Hitomi remarked as she studied the girl's features. "I never forget a face, and I can't remember yours."

"My name is Haku, ma'am. I'm a recent arrival to the village." Yuki answered politely.

"Ma'am? I get too much of that, besides that 'sama' this and the 'sama' that. But it's still better than the honorific, I suppose. My name's Hyuuga Hitomi of the Hyuuga clan. But your name's Haku..." The woman racked her brain, trying to recollect where she had heard the name before. "I believe I heard my daughter mention that name before. Is your last name 'Yuki'?"

"That's correct," Haku said, wondering where this was going.

"Oh! You're Naruto-kun's servant." The woman commented coolly, not betraying a single feeling. "How is he these days?"

Haku's first response would have been to ask how she knew about her status, or even to question why the woman seemed so relaxed about it. Working it out quickly in her mind, she realized that Hinata who was on Naruto's team must have told her; besides, she knew that Hinata was the clan's heiress. But that would make this woman...the clan head, or the wife of the clan head if it was her husband instead. But she decided to forgo it and answer the woman. "He's fine, ma'am. In fact, he's on mission now, though. I hope he's alright; mission variables and all."

"I'm sure he's well; he's no mere child that needs coddling."

And so the two continued to make their small talk, and continued to pass the time. Their topics from there began to range, until finally, the nurse from before returned and with Hitomi's subordinates. Both of them looked up upon their arrival and listened intently to what the woman had to say; her facial expression wasn't exactly encouraging feel-good vibes.

"Hyuuga-sama," the medical practitioner began, "there's no easy way to say this, so I'll be blunt. The man you brought in..."

"Bōei-san," Hitomi filled in the blank with the afflicted man's name.

"Bōei-san," the nurse took the amendment and continued, "has lapsed into a coma." She tried to ignore the reactions, although silent, were varying in the four people before her by way of facial expressions. "We have no idea what brought this on, why it's happening or even why him in particular. It's the very same thing in the orphanage owner, if I might add. Have the two ever come into contact with one another?"

"No, not that I know of," Hitomi replied curtly. Haku, realizing that this did not concern her, begged her pardon to take her own leave. The clanswoman excused her politely, and so the servant girl got up and made ready to exit. As she walked away, she racked her own mind in her head as to how such a case could have occurred. She only paid the matter only passing attention though, as it didn't really concern her. She cared, just not as much as how she would have been if it were someone she knew that the tribulation had happened to.

Now she began to feel uneasy, almost as if she just got hit with a feeling of premonition. She had a rather tight circle of how many people knew her personally and knew _of_ her just to begin with. Precious people who she cared for? Even smaller. In fact, it was only two people, she mused silently just as she was about to reach the exit, beginning to feel a sense of trepidation for no good reason. Zabuza himself, and-

The doors flew open once more, and Haku had to leap aside to dodge a blur that entered the hospital, followed by two more. Haku had to follow them with her eyes and she saw that it was a man with black hair in a bowl-cut with someone on his back, and the two breathless blurs behind him was a bun-haired girl in a qipao-style blouse, and another girl she recognized as Hinata. She was about to hail her in a greeting but whatever words of passing courtesy died in her throat as she noticed that the figure on the green-clothed man's back was that of her master's.

For him to have been carried, much less to be towed into a hospital, it had to be serious.

Haku had to run up to the three along the corridor and keep pace with the three and caught a hand on Hinata's shoulder. "Is everything alright? What happened to Naruto-sama?!"

"Naruto- _sama_?" The bun-haired girl quipped in bewilderment between gasps for oxygen. "Hinata, who's this?"

Hinata ignored the question to pay more attention to Haku's concern. "We don't know what happened. He fell unconscious this morning, and when we didn't know what could have happened, Gai-sensei and the two of us rushed ahead of the group to get him to the hospital. Asuma-sensei is leading the others at the normal pace," she answered in one breath.

The servant girl had her afore feelings of trepidation answered, and suddenly worried that whatever had afflicted the two men who had entered the hospital in comas was the same thing that had happened to Naruto, although there was no possible way of these three individuals having relations with one another. "Oh no..." By now, they had reached the Hyuuga's she had left with the nurse, and Gai carefully let Naruto off of his back dexterously and set him down on the bench, where he was carefully set upright by Tenten and Haku.

"Hinata-chan?" Hitomi allowed a shred of emotion to cross her face. "Back from your mission with the others already? What is wrong?"

"Kaa-san!" Hinata bowed her head slightly and went with the most affection form of address she could without sounding too much so in public. "Naruto-kun is not well."

"Yes!" Gai affirmed to the nurse once he got her attention. "All of our efforts to wake him have failed. My fellow colleague, Asuma-san, suggested we get him proper medical attention here, and we rushed him from Riyūsu Town."

"You rushed here all the way from Riyūsu Town?" Hitomi asked with a small amount of wonder, knowing of the eccentric man's speed. "And Hinata-chan and this other girl-"

"Tenten," the weapon's mistress offered.

"Tenten," the woman took the answer and used it, "followed and kept pace?"

"I did not use my full speed, but their own efforts were quite youthful!" Gai didn't outright yell it as he usually did, but it was still fairly loud however.

Haku in the meantime kept trying to wake Naruto herself, and found her attempts fruitless. "Nurse-san, it's true," she said nervously. "He's not waking up. Is he in a-"

"For your sakes, I hope not," the young woman said easily, although she felt put off by having the Kyuubi jinchuriki thrust into her care. She was really starting to hate this working shift. "Or he'll be the third one."

"The third what?" Hinata didn't want to ask, but felt that the question had to be put out so that she and her comrades could get the answer.

Although she _really_ didn't want to hear the answer.

"The third one to lapse into a coma."

 **=X=X=**

Haku kept her eyes trained on the door when she heard the doorknob jiggle and turn. When it opened, it admitted a mountain of an orderly who was followed in by the same bun-haired girl she had seen from three days ago, Tenten. She supposed that she could allow the girl-…she seemed close to her master already.

Haku knew that she was protective. Sure, while she had a decent bit of medical knowledge, she was like a proverbial watch-dog…no, more like a _guard-_ dog, especially considering her relationship to the Uzumaki. She knew of the village's bias towards her master, so she was vigilant and screened anyone who came into the room. Like the first nurse…'If you didn't want to take care of Naruto-sama,' she had told her, 'then go be useless somewhere else.'

The nurse's language became less than savory right then and there. After some verbal input from people who cared about Naruto (that is, the Hokage himself) the nurse found herself on a permanent unpaid vacation when the Hokage decided that the hospital needed a 'personnel surplus reduction' and that the nurse needed to take her career in a new direction.

All very nice and polite ways of saying that the nurse was fired.

There were some people who were indifferent to Naruto; that was all Haku needed. She didn't need them to love the Uzumaki, she only wanted the people in charge of his care to actually do their jobs. The orderly that escorted the girl inside was one, and a few other nurses. There was something of a feud going on in the hospital just because of this, and people had to be taking sides either 'pro' or 'anti' Naruto Uzumaki. Although it was easy to concede that the 'Anti-Uzumaki's outnumbered the 'Pro-Uzumaki's by far.

Coming from a place like this, Haku had to wonder how and why Naruto would even think about helping any and everyone he knew, especially people of his own village. His donations alone from when he was moving from his apartment was an example of such, and she found it hard in herself to feel the same way. But she supposed that she wasn't killing the silent 'Anti-Uzumakis' in the hospital. The wasn't necessarily giving them the milk of human kindness to them, but it was a start. Right?

She was yanked from her thoughts when the bun-haired girl spoke up. "You're not going to get confrontational with me again, are you? We're cool, aren't we?"

"I still don't know who you are. For all I know, you could be carrying poisons in your seals and what-not."

"Easy, easy!" The girl held up her hands to placate. "My name's Tenten. And besides, I don't hate Naruto-kun." 'The exact reverse, in fact, but she doesn't need to know **that**.' "I'm his best friend for Kami's sake!"

"He never spoke of you." Haku said bluntly, as she actually took out three senbon as-quick-as-a-blink and narrowed her eyes. The poise and stance? Threatening, of course.

"Alright, let me try again," Tenten urged. "He's **my** best friend. Besides, why else would I try to keep up with my ridiculously fast sensei to come to the hospital? Hinata can even vouch for me. In fact, I should be asking who **you** are."

"…" Haku scrutinized the girl for a moment longer before the forgotten orderly spoke up.

"Hey…you two girls aren't going to fight with the patient just lying in here in bed, are you? Otherwise, I'm going to throw you both out, whether or not you're sanctioned by the Hokage himself to be here," he remarked, more so to Haku herself. "Either play nice, or take your business elsewhere."

Haku sighed before she put away her senbon. "Yes, Chūmon-san." The big orderly nodded before he backed out of the room, but not before caution the girls to be on their best behavior. He himself didn't know why he said that, but while the **theme** was up there, he decided that he might as well.

Tenten looked down at Naruto as he lied still on the bed, save for his chest moving as he breathed. He was hooked up to the EKG machine, and had a tube or two going through his mouth and down his throat. This felt…wrong. This was not the Naruto she knew. The Naruto she knew was more active, never in bed less than what was necessary for sleeping and didn't need any tubes in him to get sustenance. Even worse, to fall ill for no good reason. Who ever just fell into comas while going about everyday life?

Her eyes inevitably rose back up to meet Haku's, and brown eyes clashed. "You know, all this bias against me and I still don't even know who **you** are."

"My name's Haku." The ice-user said effortlessly.

"I asked who you are, not your name."

Haku recalled a situation like this. It was just like when the Hokage had asked her, except that it was a normal person asking her and there wasn't any ANBU around to try and take her life. So no pressure, "I'm Naruto-sama's servant," she said simply.

"Oh, is that all," Tenten said sarcastically. "He's your Lord and Master, too?"

"Indeed, he is," Haku shut down the sarcasm with her short reply.

They fell silent then, half-watching each other while the rest of their attention rested on the unconscious blond in his bed. Both of them wished to be alone and free of the other's company, but none of them had the moxie to do it. The tension was rising so much that it felt like a tangible thing, even more so in the weapon's mistress as she found that she could very nearly feel Haku's emotions, no doubt because of some damned seal on her head that said 'Empath'. In order to quell it, Tenten attempted to make some small talk, "You know, I kinda get why you're so on edge. A lot of people in the village hate Naruto-kun. I'd probably be suspicious of me too. Naruto-kun wouldn't have any reason to talk about me, since we only re-united recently. But we've got some history. It's not all good, but that's just how it goes."

"Mm hmm." Haku hummed disinterestedly.

"But you can trust me," Tenten went on, beginning to ramble. "I wouldn't dare think of doing anything wrong by Naruto-kun."

"Why's that?"

Tenten looked down, wondering how to answer. "Next to Masato, the orphanage owner, Naruto's all I've got. And Masato's also in here, the hospital. He's in a coma too, and I was just visiting him. No one knows why any of this is happening. It's bizarre. Two comas, plus that homeless guy makes **three** comas at the exact same time?"

"Well," Haku tried to smile. "Naruto-sama's all I've got, too. And I'm sorry to hear about Masato. Is he improving, showing any signs of soon awakening?"

"Nope. Same as ol' Naruto here. But to get off topic, how did you get to know Naruto-kun anyway? And what's all this servant business?"

…

…

…

"Well, that's quite a story," Tenten muttered, not sure what to make of it. But what she had just been told about Naruto seemed to fit his character perfectly. But any questions she had to ask him would have to wait until he woke up.

If he ever woke up.

She mentally slapped herself. That thought was far too negative to even exist. She evicted it from her mind before she began to tell Haku how she got to know Naruto. It wasn't epic, far more embarrassing, but such was the nature of telling the story of one's own life.

…

…

…

"Well, I've gotta get going, Haku. Maybe I can pass by tomorrow. Ever since Masato lapsed, I've got to be some kind of leader to the other kids at my orphanage. I'm not the oldest by a couple of months, but what can I say, they look up to me." She packed up her things and made ready to go.

"Alright, take care," Haku reciprocated a wave to the girl that exited. When she knew she was alone again, she looked down at her master. "It seems that there _are_ people who care for you, Naruto-sama. The village isn't entirely full of people who hate you after all. But did the ones that care for you…did they care before or _after_ you help them?"

There was no answer. Furthermore, she couldn't even guess the response. What would his response be?

Tenten said that she had helped him with the bag strap, but who knows, that was before she knew about the Kyuubi, if she knew about it at all. Maybe she could drop a hint when next she came and see her reaction to find out if the weapon's user knew about the biju or not. But for now, Haku decided to go get some food. She was hungry enough to even eat hospital food.

Or perhaps she could ask the orderly _very nicely_ to buy her something. Something more tasty, more edible in fact.

Yeah, she liked the second idea more.

It's very important to know what you're eating. However, it's not important to know what it is, but more so, to know what it **was**. Since Haku saw that she didn't know what the hell it was, she wrote off hospital food as things to avoid whenever possible.

 **=X=X=**

He felt like he was coming back from afar in his consciousness, like awakening from a long sleep. As he did so, his eyes opened in a fright, hoping that he hadn't fallen asleep while leaving something in the forge that was probably alit.

No.

Perfect recall told him that he hadn't left anything in the flames. Good thing too, 'cause taking a nap on the ground was already bad enough. The cold and hard ground.

But why was he on the ground?

Naruso finally cleared his mind of cobwebs with 'Focus' and heaved himself up with a push-up. Now standing, he struggled to keep himself upright. His bones ached, his stomach starved, his eyes barely used to the light and the cold…the cold was biting. Damn this land!

"Why the hell am I so cold?" He grumbled. "I'm in my forge shop for Kami's sake! It should be warmer!"

The land of Iron was a particularly cold place, more and more so the farther north one went. But Naruso the weapon's user of the Tenacious Thirteen didn't go there to get a change of temperature and scenery…he went there to build his forge, and be close to all the prime metal to be found there. All he had to do was keep his career to himself. The Samurai up there didn't take too kindly to ninjas, but so long as he stuck to his forge and made weapons every now and again for them when they passed by fortnightly (they paid, of course), they turned a blind eye.

Let it never be said that a book couldn't teach a person to do anything, even how to run a smithy. But damn, why did he feel like he got a glimpse of the entirety of a library?

Wait a minute…

He was cold.  
He had been unconscious.  
He was ravenously hungry.  
He had recollections of…reading out a whole library.

Well, he just figured it out. It was a backlash of nuclear proportions. But one thing he didn't know. What day was it?

He had no idea of knowing, or even finding out without asking someone. But he wasn't exactly set up in the way of other people to drop in everyday.

"Well, I could just ask one of the others." Naruso grumbled. He immediately tried to contact one of the others on instinct, before he had to abandon it. He had long known that it was pointless; he was too far from any other of his group to contact mentally. Instead, he went with the standby and tried to contact Kurama, so that the beast could relay messages. That usually worked.

This time, it didn't.

"What the hell's going on?!" The weapon's user vented as he kicked a bucket of kunai in his way, the ninja knives clattered on the floor in a mess. They all separated, reminding him of his state with his brothers. "What's happening?!"

And just like that, he got his answer.

"Agh!" His head throbbed a bit. "Goddamn it! Who's popping clones? The backlash of that big one was bad enough, now these are gonna finish me off-…wait a minute…oh. Narburei, you clever and crazy bastard."

Well, that was one way to keep in touch, despite adding a bit more of a headache to the big one that must have knocked them all out. Narburei (a.k.a. 'Psychosis') just informed a clone a message, then popped it to speak to everyone. According to him, it was looking bad.

Apparently, they had all gone under for a complete week. If that wasn't bad enough, Narburei had elaborated that it could have done them in so badly, then chances are that if Naruto and Kyuubi was still unresponsive, then it meant that it was far worse on their end.

They were all abroad when the incident took place. A couple of library clones just dispelled and released a whole library's worth of knowledge, not to mention, there was something about a book with the boss's name inside…

That wasn't important right now.

All at once, members of the T13 starting relaying in messages from popped clones complaining about their lost week. Nartai complained about losing a week's worth of training, Nariwa moaned about laying on a ground of gravel for a week, Narmizu was floating belly-up in a lake and nearly drowned, but none came close to Narburei himself who was telling the others that he woke up to find that the forest critters had been shitting on his body in the open. He stunk to high hell.

They would have laughed if it weren't so serious.

'Everyone pack your shit together,' the memory of a thought came. 'We've gotta see to the boss, see if everything's on the up and up with him. We can't really trust anyone in the village to not try to kick him while he's down. We all have his memories of how they crowds nearly took him apart when he was younger.'

'What about Haku?' A chirrup of a memory-thought came from the raiton specialist.

'Let's just go!' The others chastised.

After another trying minute or two, everyone laid off from the chattering; Naruso was all on his own again, physically and mentally. He took the time to let his eyes pass over his forge, his home and work combined into one where he spent most of his days at crafting. Just a workman and his tools.

Perhaps it would be nice to speak face-to-face with the others again. Even if they all wore the same face as their maker.

He immediately began sealing up the contents of the forge. It was easier since the flames of it had gone out a few days ago, but he still needed a large storage seal, like the ones he had created for his largest creations. Maybe he could show them off to the others when he got the chance. To show that the heavy hitting Ninjutsu specialists could be competed with. After nearly sealing everything up, only the kunais he had kicked over remained, and he picked them up all one by one. As he did so, he allowed a smile to cross his face as they were sealed in a tattoo in his palm.

Just like the earlier example of the T13 being separated, this yet again would be a better case in point, in which all the brothers would be together again.

At last, he exited the building in which he had stayed, now just an empty shell. He closed the door with finality and turned his whole body to face the south. He had a long way to go.

But it was easy. All he had to do was face the right direction, and keep on placing one foot ahead of the other in turns. No matter the distance, he was going home.

They all were.

 **=X=X=**

"He's awake, he's awake!" The cry arose. "He's awake!"

Tenten jerked her head up as she woke up out of her sleep suddenly. "Huh? Is that Asami's voice?" She leaned up from where she had rested her upper torso on Naruto's chest, already peering at Naruto's face to see if had woken up. She was utterly disappointed to see that he was still unconscious and in his coma. "Aaw. Who's awake?"

She had dozed off, sitting in a chair and napped with her head and shoulders on Naruto's chest. Haku was out (rare instance) and in the girl's usual spot, Hyena was lying in the chair, half-curled comfortably. Said creature looked up briefly, before letting its head to sag back down to resume her forty winks. If it wasn't Naruto who was awake, there was no reason for her to be.

Tenten on the other hand, heaved herself up, having realized that it was indeed her fellow foster child, Asami who had raised the cry. She was about to head to the door when it opened to allow entrance for Haku, who frowned when she saw Hyena sleeping in her seat. "I can't even get up to use the facilities without her stealing my seat…"

Hyena seemed to be able to worm her way into everyone's heart, all except for Haku's, evidently. Even the medical staff were easily convinced to allow her to stay (provided she didn't make a noise or mess of things. But cuteness could only go so far, if you kept on annoying a certain person, because no matter how small the annoyances were, they built up to erode patience.

" **You snooze, you lose,"** Hyena said groggily before falling off to sleep completely.

Haku stomped over to the chair and grasped the back while smirking. "How true," she remarked, before tipping the chair fluidly, letting the sleeping animal to tumble out and fall to the ground. Haku then successfully claimed the seat as hers, since the former occupant had been forcefully evicted.

The Hyena yelped in surprise before walking off. **"You're a 'seat-hogger'!"**

Haku rolled her eyes before turning to Tenten. "I believe that Masato-san has awoken. I heard a commotion about it while I was out."

"I know," Higurashi exclaimed half-heartedly. "I've got to go see him."

Haku could sense the girl's misgivings and frowned. "You don't sound entirely pleased."

Tenten sighed, having been caught, "Well…I thought it was Naruto-kun who woke up. I don't want to sound unhappy or anything. I should be happy anyway, 'cause Masato just woke up, right?"

"You were looking forward to Naruto-sama waking up more than for Masato-san to wake up?" Yuki stated bluntly. All Tenten could do was nod before turning to leave. Haku let her go; she more than likely needed to catch up with the orphanage owner. Besides, she needed to have this. At least this way, Tenten could get some rest; after all, the orphanage needed some semblance of a pecking order, and the girl needed some sort of reprieve of having to fill the top spot. Not necessarily in responsibility, just socially. But still, it was an orphanage…not much of a difference.

Hold on…did Tenten just leave?

"Tenten, wait!" Haku yelled uncharacteristically. "Take Hyena with you!"

There was no answer, unfortunately. She was stuck with the damn creature. Cuteness be damned, that thing was a demon.

 **=X=X=**

Kurenai walked slowly along the corridor. The building had the same, clean smell that was prevalent in any and everywhere she roamed in it.

She hated hospitals.

Anyone could agree that it provided a necessary service to all, although many people despised being bedridden in the first place, not to mention being helpless to a point in which they had to have others (and machines) do the simplest tasks for them. Like feeding tubes, respiratory actions and…(shudder) catheters. It was hard to take things like this for granted but…she never thought that someone like Naruto would end up here.

Well, again, that is. He had two historical beatings behind him; the one when he was seven, and the one that had passed into dreadful memory when he was ten.

But this? To fall unconscious practically at the end of a mission for absolutely no reason and _then_ slip into a coma? This was relatively pathetic.

She finally opened the door to find the usual people in there, that is, Naruto's servant/slave Haku, Tenten and a sleeping Hyena cub (or whatever that thing was,) that had followed them home from the mission to Riyūsu Town. The not-so-usuals were Shino, although Hinata dropped in fairly frequently, considering that she still had training to undergo with her clan and other such duties. The Aburame on the other hand, was more or less 'Naruto-san will wake when Naruto-san wakes.' Typical Aburame behavior.

They all looked up sharply upon her entrance, even one or two of them were poised to attack and the red-eyed woman had to hold up two of her hands to pacify them. "Easy, easy. I'm not here to kill anyone."

Haku put away her senbon while Tenten returned her kunai to its case. "Sorry. I just sensed upset emotions," the Higurashi mumbled to herself. "Why are you here…Miss?" She asked aloud.

"Kurenai," the Genjutsu Mistress of Konoha offered. "What are all of you doing, security detail?"

"We're visiting presently, but yes, we are." Hinata answered. "People in the village, although few, have attempted to harm Naruto-kun. The last attack came only yesterday."

"Hokage-sama had to post an ANBU here after people tried to get smart and throw bricks inside through the window."

"ANBU?" Kurenai muttered before she searched around diligently, before spying a cat-masked ANBU with purple hair hiding in the shadows of a furniture of the back of the room. 'Oh, it's Yugao. I still have to pretend that I don't see her. "That's a shame to hear. I…um…came to visit Naruto too, just didn't figure that it'd be so crowded."

"Needed to speak to Naruto in private?" Shino queried.

"No." The woman deadpanned. "Just to slug him a good one and then tell him to wake the hell up or he's going to miss the chunin exams that start in twenty days."

"The chunin exams," Hinata echoed. "It's why we even went one the mission in the first place."

"Exactly. And all three of you need to be there to qualify as a team entry. Either that or nothing at all." Kurenai explained the cause and effect not just to her team, but to all of them so that they could hear the generality. "I know that Naruto's got a strong mettle so I know he'll wake up. I just wish he'd stop taking his time about it."

Now that was something. Was Kurenai saying that she _believed_ in Naruto? Sounded like it. "He's in a coma, there's a chance he might never wake up again. Such is the nature of comas…"

"Shut up that pessimistic crap, Shino!" Tenten ranted. "Go take it somewhere else, 'cause it sure isn't welcome here!"

"I'm not pessimistic. Only realistic. Someone has to be, because no one else is stating the facts. We've all thought of it, surely."

Haku grinned at the last, before laughing a bit. "You know, that's the only good thing about Naruto-sama still being in the coma," she spoke, shocking all with what she was saying, "because if he was awake to hear you say that-"

"He would have kicked your ass just for saying it." Tenten finished. When the kikaichu user heard that, he allowed himself a smile. A small one.

"Well, I wouldn't want him to wake up just so we could enter the exams," Hinata commented, "but just cause. Also, though, because he promised me a date since the one in Riyūsu Town was botched."

"What?" Kurenai's eyebrows nearly lifted completely off of her face. "A date?"

"Is there a problem, Kurenai-sensei?"

"No Hinata. None at all." The woman said hurriedly before backing out of the room. 'Dear Kami. What the hell happened on that mission? One of them must've made the first move, but I can't imagine Hinata doing it, or Naruto with his thickheaded-ness. Good thing I decided to opt out.'

 **=X=X=**

Night had fallen a few hours ago. It must have been around eight p.m., Shino figured. He looked up at the clock and saw that he wasn't too far off. It was five minutes to the hour.

He suppressed a yawn as he looked on silently as Hinata, Haku and Tenten continued to freely converse. He had no idea how they could manage to keep at it for so long; why couldn't these girls be like those of his clan? Only speaking only when necessary. Hanging around them (Team 8) for so long had made 'talkative' by their (clan) standards, although he knew he didn't talk all that much. That was just an example.

Just a small example to show how much they talked…err…read: got along well.

Haku, Hinata and Tenten. It seemed that they hit it off, although the only sore point, Shino could tell, was when Hinata had mentioned that 'date' in Riyūsu Town. Were the other two jealous? If so, the novelty of the situation would be just too rich. How could a guy like Naruto have girls after him? What was he doing? Or not doing?

If Kiba ever found out about this, he'd have a fit.

"I dunno," Tenten remarked, "I just get these feelings of familiarity when I'm around Masato, now. He almost feels like…like Naruto-kun."

"How come?"

"Back on that mission, I turned up an ability to sense stuff. It's so weird. I can get a general feel of emotions, true, but the freaky part is that it's like I can see or _feel_ things from another perspective. Like over my shoulder, or a bird's eye view…even 'looking behind' myself as if I'm standing in front of me. Like you, Hinata. You're in front of me, and it's like how you must be seeing over my shoulder."

"Huh…is that so…" Haku narrowed her eyes before glancing at Shino who was behind Tenten. "Shino-san, do something, but do it in Tenten's blind spot." The boy lifted an eyebrow and stood still regardless. "What did he just do?"

"He did… _nothing_." Tenten smirked. "Trying to trick me, eh?"

This time, Shino raised his left hand, careful not rustle his clothing.

"He lifted his hand." Tenten said this time.

"Which one?" Hinata asked.

"Hard to tell," Tenten answered with shrug. "Between my normal point-of-view plus another perspective…it's almost like guessing, but with halved odds. It's his…left hand?"

"Guessed right." Haku resigned. "It's abnormal, almost like Naruto-sama's abilities. The ones he told me about in Nami no Kuni. Like 'Reflex'; being able to react to attacks he himself doesn't even know will occur."

"The wha-…'Reflex'? Abilities?" Hinata frowned. "What kind of abilities? He didn't tell us about any abilities."

"Ooh…" Haku hoped that she didn't step too deeply a mess this time. She should stop; perhaps Naruto hadn't wanted to tell them, or he was going surprise them. Either way, it wasn't her place to tell them.

"If it's anything like mine…" Tenten shifted uncomfortably. "Back on the mission, he claimed that some guy put some seal on me that must have given me the ability." She neglected to tell them why. "But Naruto-kun's first question was to take off my headband. Like he knew it was going to be there."

Everyone's eyes except for Haku's immediately snapped to Naruto's face, or more particularly, his forehead that was still covered by his hitai-ate. Haku cursed to herself. She had long known that his seal was there with said abilities plain to be seen (from ever-since-when he had told her in Wave) and now, the others were about to get their curiosity sated, if Tenten's reaching for the unconscious boy's forehead protector was any indication.

Not if she could help it. Although there would be an issue of how much force she could use…

Tenten stopped; her hand paused in its motions as she looked about, confused. "Anyone else feel-"

Three kunais sailed through the glass window at impressive speed, barely shattering the pane but certainly destroyed the light bulbs in the hospital room, plunging it into near perfect darkness filled with minuscule moonlight and silhouettes. All occupants immediately went on danger mode, but they had no chance to prepare as foreigners entered the room like sleek shadows, and suddenly, all order was lost in room.

"What the hell is this?!" Tenten felt like she 'saw' over her shoulder and ducked a tanto lunge that would have sunken into her neck. She caught the next swing, that didn't mean that she stopped it; it was more like she slowed it, and barely maneuvered out of the way to avoid a throat slashing.

Hinata nearly fumbled with the sole handseal in the darkness to activate her byakugan and upon activating it, quickly saw that six unwelcome visitors were in the room with them. She had no time to dwell on the number before she had to dodge a fist that would have smashed her temple. She didn't completely avoid it, it glanced and if it were any indication, this person was as strong as mule, and had fists as hard as hooves. She managed to strike the masked person twice before he seemingly shrugged off the tenketsu closing, realizing he was up against a Hyuuga. "I kick ass at taijutsu. So let's see how I hold up against a Hyuuga's 'Gentle' Fist!" The girl saw that his form reminded her of Naruto's own, reminding her of something; she had to ignore it in favor of avoiding getting pummeled.

Always on alert, Haku had her senbon out and it was just in time, as she had to dodge a pair of red-hot kunais that showed where the user was in the dark. Whoever these people were, they had some sort of advantage, besides the one of surprise. They (Haku and the others) were sitting in a well lit room and had their pupils constricted to keep out excess light, whereas these attackers must have barged in with dilated pupils that were already used to the dark.

But she could tell that this person with the hot tantos just cut through her senbon as if they were candlesticks.

She dropped them as if they were hot (they actually were) and formed ice gauntlets over her hands to defend herself with. She was soon in a tit-for-tat, vice-versa match with each person tried to press an advantage while keeping up a defensive, although the attacker's strength was starting to tell. How much weight did this person bench, was her main thought.

Shino immediately released insects to seek and destroy the offense, or in particular, the one that was dead-set on killing him. However, they failed to make contact as if the person was a walking flood of water, armored or covered with it, making his insects unable to make it to the person wreathed in it to hurt them. He had to lock into a battle with taijutsu supplemented with a kunai, since bugs were out of the question.

For so long, Yugao had been an ANBU agent. She considered herself a good ninja in the art of kenjutsu, but the second she had her sword drawn, she realized that the person who was the very same in proficiency at her, or even better. What was worse, however, the person's muscular strength behind his powered swings to break through her guard was near unbelievable. After he parried her sword twice and nearly beheaded her if she hadn't blocked his neat slash, she had to embrace the sword's handle to keep it in her possession, seeing as he nearly knocked it out of her grasp. In the sparks that gashed and flew and lit the room in flashes, she saw that everyone was antagonized by the fairly identical attackers, all except for one of the attackers who was free by means of a surplus, and he was at Naruto's bedside.

She had to end this before-

"Don't take your eyes off of your opponent!" Her fighter growled. " **Kenjutsu: Jūyōna kekka**!" (Sword Technique: Vital Consequence)

He formed a dog handseal with his sword in a reverse grip before flicking it deftly back into a forward grip. With that done, he slashed with it so quickly she could hardly see, save for the silver glint of his blade.

One second later, her sword fell apart in three pieces, and her foot was thrust-kicked to open her guard. Landing on a knee on the cursed initiative of the body's weight and reflexes, his sword was laid to rest on her neck.

Haku could just make out the defeat of their ANBU, and saw red when she saw in the poor light that one of the attackers came to Naruto's bedside and placed his hand on Naruto's head, whereupon the hand began to glow yellow. She didn't recognize it as a diagnostic medical jutsu in the heat of the moment, yelled at the top of her lungs. "You will remove your hand from Master at once, before I liberate it from your possession!"

The boy attacker looked up when he heard this. "Master? Who would call him that? Wait…Haku? Is that you?"

This person knew her name? And why did his voice remind her so much of Naruto's. Damn it, she couldn't remember specific names. "Are you Naruto-sama's brothers?"

"Who the fuck's asking?" The one who captured Hinata's arm asked bluntly as he pinned it behind her back, nearly breaking it as he crouched over her body on the ground.

"Everyone, stand down! Lay off!" The one who had been speaking to Haku ordered. "Oi, 'fire boy', give us some light so we can see!"

"It's Narkasai," the fire user muttered before he acquiesced without further complaint. He stopped his fighting with Haku and allowed a flare of fire to erupt from his upturned palm, performing like a lit torch.

"What? Yo, Doc, you know these people?" The one who retreated from nearly cutting Tenten's throat asked. "I swear, I saw this chick reaching for Boss's neck!"

"It was his forehead!" Tenten wheezed, feeling short of breath now for nearly no reason. All of a sudden, she could breathe a bit better but didn't put away her kunai. "Someone, explain!"

"…" Hinata was released and she stood up, realizing that it must have been some kind of misunderstanding. "Naruto-kun's brothers?" She looked at them all carefully with the byakugan, and realized that they were practically perfect copies of her crush. "The ones from Wave country?"

"Only me from Nami no Kuni, sister." Doc answered. "This is most of everyone else who didn't go there."

"There must be 13 of them in total if that 'T13' symbol on their clothes is any indication. What kind of group is this?" Shino asked aloud as he gazed at the masked individuals with shades over their eyes, just like the ones from the before in Wave country. Yugao was silent. She was still trying to figure out how she got overpowered in kenjutsu; she only stared at the broken pieces of her chokuto and wondered what kind of technique (or drugs) the person was using to do something like that…it had been a well built sword. Having the sword at her neck removed, she looked up through the eyeholes of her mask to see her 'attacker' holding out a hand to help her get up. She only accepted it more politely than out of necessity, and he then handed his sword to her.

She nearly gawked at the gesture as he offered it at the handle, but instead of speaking, she held up a palm that signified a 'no'. He nodded vigorously before he spoke. "It's cool. I got a half-dozen more as spares. Besides, I think I'm the only one of us two with a brother who makes top quality swords just to pass the time. And for what it's worth, sorry about your sword. But better it broke here, than when later you're fighting someone who really wants to kill you, no?"

Well, with that said…

The masked woman took the sword, but didn't sheathe it. She held it at her side in a ready position as if still expecting further confrontation, and the others realized that it was as good as they were going to get from her. Narishi (Doc) turned back to Haku. "We were going to scout this out first, but when the old windbag over there started hollering about her going to slit his throat, we just acted."

"Wait…wind?" Tenten thought back to her breathless state. "You were trying to suffocate me with some sort of passive wind jutsu?"

"Death by throat slashing, or asphyxiation. Both are horrible and the only difference is the mess," Narkaze said with a shrug. "We don't try to pretty things up like Boss. We just get shit done." 'Especially since the death of Boss means the death of us. I just didn't want to take the chance.'

"He gets things done too, Kaze," Doc rebutted before he sighed while scratching his head. "Well, on the behalf of everyone here who jumped the gun and for myself, sorry for the attack. We'll just go. Just add the cost of the window and the light bulbs to Naruto's bill. Let him pay for it, he's got the coin."

"Not so…" Yugao spoke evenly. "You just broke several laws here, assault, battery of property owed by the village, antagonism against ANBU on protection detail…you're all under arrest."

"Uh huh…well that would be a bad thing…if we were actually **here** ," Doc said while smirking under his mask. "We're clones."

With that said, all of them dispelled in puffs of smoke, save for the Narkaze in the now-darkened room. "Wait…aww, damnit, we were supposed to send clones of ourselves in here? I thought we were to using clones as lookouts!" He looked around at the others, especially the silent ANBU. "Kami…oh well, you don't have to be the fastest man on the planet, you only need to be faster then me." He discretely lowered his gravity seal from '4' to nil. "Sadly, I don't think you are."

And with that, he sprinted to the window as fleet as the wind, swallow-dived through it and was gone.

It was in the silence of the room that everyone still stood in before Tenten broke it.

"I may _never_ try to look under Naruto-kun's headband again."

 **Well, that's it! I think this chapter was better than average and somewhat better than the last one. This one was filler-ific with decent character exploration, but we're back to relevance next chapter.**

 **Happy New Year everyone, and good blessings and a productive year. And errm…hold off on making resolutions until after 'Blue's Monday', the third Monday of every January. You'll increase your chances of sticking to 'em if you make them then.**

 _ **M. Ray**_


	40. Chapter 40

**Breaking Limits**

 **I'm back. Sorry for the wait. 12 exams, 5 internal tests and 4 group projects all in a matter of a fortnight are enough to kill a man's spirit. (Whispers) That's what happens when you live in a third-rate country that crams two years of learning in a matter of nine months. Learning Website coding from scratch is no joke!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. And I don't want to. Only the money it has earned, without the responsibilities.**

 **Damn, I'm a lazy joe, ain't I?**

 **40\. (Wait… Chapter 40 already?!)**

The man turned away from the window to face his soldier. "Interesting. Very interesting, Neko. So, did you confirm it?"

The masked ANBU shook her head slowly. "I did not sir, but I strongly believe that my theories are correct."

"May I see the young man's sword?"

The ANBU operative offered the sword to the Sandaime handle-first as per custom; she had no want or need to offend him doing it otherwise. After receiving the sword, Hiruzen Sarutobi briskly drew the chokuto from its scabbard and observed it with a hawk-eye, analysing it for all the details. "This is a well-built sword, as far as I can see. So the young man made this?"

"The _clone_ said his _brother_ **made** it." The Hokage didn't miss the swordswoman's key emphasis when and where it applied, and he frowned.

"Yes. Clones. But Neko, we still have to remain under assumption." He re-sheathed the sword and gave it back the ANBU, who then placed it on a hook on her belt. She had yet to replace her sword that broke last night, so she was keeping the new one until then. She hated to be without one, after having on in her possession for so long.

"Hokage-sama, with all due respect, you know that making and staying under just an _assumption_ is nothing but-"

"I understand."

"They sounded alike, roughly the same size-..."

The Hokage held up his hand. "I heard your report the first time. But the issue still remains that it was dark, but after there was a light supplied by one that used katon, you observed them all, and their mannerisms. They may sound alike, but they all functioned differently. These boys utilized different fighting techniques, different fighting abilities, different _affinities_..."

Anyone looking in could tell that Neko was losing her patience; she was subtly fidgeting uncomfortably as if she didn't want to stand the argument of her highest superior...but had to regardless.

"...And furthermore, you admitted that they each had different mentalities and the like, and they did not have the same exact body size, height and build. You also said that you detected no attempts to hide themselves under transformation, genjutsu or sophisticated disguises. Just a facial mask and hoods over their heads, their faces concealed with shadow and the darkness of the room."

"All true."

"And if they were clones, they should not have existed so adversely to the creator, or even be around long after Naruto has been under in a coma. They would have disappeared from a lack of chakra, or merely from the fact that he's unconscious. There has never been anything like this before, unheard of and even conceivable."

"There has never been anyone like **Naruto** before, Hokage-sama," Yugao said wisely.

The Hokage chuckled at this before his face gradually reverted to the face he wore that more befitted his title. "Indeed. Nevertheless, I'll look into this myself. Naruto might have been able to have his way outside the village, but inside...is another story. I cannot simply allow six 'unknown individuals' just blunder into a village as if they own it. And on that same note, I'll have to tighten security. Neko-san, carry on at your post as you were before. Dismissed."

"Hai. Hokage-sama, before I leave-...a question, if I may."

"Speak," the man acknowledged with a nod.

"If I were to encounter them, what should I do?"

"If you encounter them, you did **not** encounter them."

"I understand. Ignorance." The woman bowed once before she shunshinned away. By himself in the office now, Hiruzen seated himself in his chair before he prepared his pipe so he could indulge in the relaxant.

'Ah, Naruto-kun. I have no idea how, but you've somehow managed to make clones of yourself that are capable of living on their own prerogative and self-existence. I haven't even an inkling as to how you managed that, but doesn't that mean that you found a way to create life? Living individuals? Am I over-thinking it? Over-estimating you?'

Well, if one thing was sure, then Naruto was...damn, there was a hell of a lot more to the blond Uzumaki than anyone would have even dared to think. And what they had already thought wasn't small to begin with.

And then there were those girls...

The Hokage really shouldn't be using his crystal ball to spy on the girls. But he had to admit that the talks they had while over Naruto's unconscious body were very interesting. Not as blackmail material, just as a good pastime and a distraction when paperwork called too loudly. Tenten, the girl he knew Naruto had association with years ago and then apparently renewed on their past mission, Hinata and his servant/slave/maid Haku.

They all loved him, didn't they? Or at the very least, had growing feelings for him. Well, that might cause some trouble later.

In the meantime, he had nothing to do. He might as well tune his crystal ball to his 'favourite channel'. But in the back of his mind, he felt like he was forgetting something. Something date-related.

 **=X=X=**

The green haired girl's mouth dropped when she walked in through the gates. The jounin saw and chuckled to himself when he saw the girl's mouth opened enough to catch flies. "Close your mouth, Fu. Something might fly by, you know what I mean?"

The girl snapped her mouth shut. "Yeah, yeah. But this village is huge!"

"I wouldn't call it the largest, that's up for debate. But it _is_ a good thing that we're allies. Taki and Konoha, I mean." He could see that most expressions they got from the commons-folk were indifferent, while he could see a squad from Kumo not too far away from them getting dirty looks. Most likely, it was stemming from the notorious 'Hyuuga incident' close to a decade ago when the heiress was kidnapped. He turned back to Fu, and saw that she looked somewhat...attentive to what he was saying.

That was the first clue that something was wrong, before he actually sensed anything.

He continued to drone about his subject while he scanned about discretely for anything wrong. He nearly missed it, but he spied what he believed was the original green-haired kunoichi ducking away through a crowd of people, most likely to do some exploring. After weighing his options and how much trouble he could risk by letting her slip away while she was in his charge, he decided he would substitute himself out of the squad as well with a clone. Before he was about to, he realized that the clone he was in the company with along with the other two teammates did not disappear or disperse.

Didn't that mean that it was **not** a water clone, common as the ones made by those from Taki? Those dispersed after a short distance was exceeded between them and their creators. Other elemental clones could do better, but the one with the farthest distance was earth, and Fu, as far as he could tell, did **not** have that affinity. The only one left was the kage bunshin which was native to the Leaf Village, which only had the requirement of having large chakra reserves. She was capable, although how she would come to have this capability to create a clone like that was already in question.

He decided not to follow her. At least, not yet. He'd find her later, maybe in an hour or two. The leaders of Taki didn't pick an ordinary jounin to be her sensei.

 **=X=X=**

"So, how was master on the mission?"

"What do you mean?"

"No one died or got blown up, if that's what you're asking." Tenten deadpanned to the servant girl.

" **People were eaten though. Like that politician-"** Hyena started.

"So, as I was saying," Haku interrupted, cutting off the summon's line of speech, "I was told that Kurenai believes that it his intervention that commonly causes a mission's difficulty and complications to increase." The summon huffed in annoyance before lapsing off to sleep on the comatose Uzumaki's feet

"Nah. I guess drama made it get complicated. Although it did get the mission solved." Tenten answered thoughtfully.

"Drama?" Hinata asked in a nearly sarcastic tone.

"Drama?" Haku echoed. "What kind of drama?"

"Errm..." Tenten's face flushed, which did not pass the attention of the others. "Um...well, you see..."

"Yes...?" The ice user waited expectantly, immediately becoming suspicious. Did she already have a rival? 'Hmm...rival? I suppose not. I'm nothing more than a slave, a servant maybe. And upon our agreement, master is entitled to my virginity, but he said he would only engage in sexual intercourse if we were ever to enter a relationship. Chances are slim, I know, but why would I care so much? Is it that I don't value my chastity that much, or is it that I'm falling for him?' Her attention panned over from the stuttering girl to the Hyuuga and she was surprised to see that she didn't look all that...shaky, for lack of a better term. She only looked slightly jealous and was that...self-assurance? What was going on?

Haku decided that it was time to test the waters.

"Hey, Hinata. You'd better watch out. Looks like Tenten might be a rival for Naruto-sama. Relationship-wise, I mean."

At first, the Hyuuga said nothing, making Tenten quit her rambling and Haku to become concerned. After a while, she gave her response:

"I know. But Naruto-kun realized my feelings for him first. Furthermore, Naruto-kun's mine."

 **=X=X=**

The Hokage quit puffing on his pipe as he was taken aback. "Oh snap."

 **=X=X=**

Tenten's mouth hung open. "What?"

"You heard me."

Haku caught herself first. "How come? Engaged?" She asked snidely.

"No. Not yet," Hinata ignored the small jab to still answer the question. To still salvage her current status, she continued. "We dated."

Tenten threw her hands up in exasperation. "What? One date, and your head swells as if it's full of hot air!"

"More than for what you can say? After you tried to sabotage it? He would've gone around treating every female he met like crap, thinking he was doing a good thing!"

"How did you know about that?" Tenten asked, trying desperately to keep shame off of herself.

"The walls have ears," the Hyuuga replied vaguely, not wanting to say that she spied on what they had been doing while she was using Kurenai's camouflage genjutsu to blend in with the room to become as good as invisible. "You two weren't exactly whispering."

The Higurashi knew that to continue arguing was to keep digging her own grave, even if she could argue on the point that Hinata was more or less breaching on their privacy. She could have heard what she (Tenten) had apologized to Naruto for, or on the date, Naruto told Hinata. It didn't matter. As far as everyone else in the room was concerned, she, at the very least, wasn't looking very good at all. "Damn you. You're so perfect, aren't you? Is that why he chose you?" She used her words like her kunais.

"I'm not perfect!" Hinata retorted. Haku was still on the sidelines, watching back and forth, wondering what the hell had happened on the mission for this to happen. Weren't these girls friends. After dropping this fact on them, at least they calmed down a bit. She really didn't want to have to throw cold water all over them, as if they were nothing more than fighting dogs.

"We _are_ friends." Hinata mumbled. "Just started to become friends on the mission though."

"Didn't want to help heal my hands, though."

"I was jealous," Hinata reminded.

"I guess...I was jealous too." Tenten sighed. "Damn, this shouldn't be so complicated. I mean, there are other guys, right? Other nice guys to date. Know what I mean, Hinata?"

"Yeah."

"Great. You can go date another one, and Naruto-kun will-" Haku clamped her hand over Tenten's mouth, but the damage had already been done. Hinata had just been lead to believe that Tenten was giving up on the Uzumaki, but she wasn't; she'd been tricked. Tenten had stubbornness in her too. Sometimes that could be admired, but it also had annoying traits to it too.

The Hyuuga girl slowly got back up onto her feet and looked back at the Higurashi. "You know, I don't think that Naruto would have continued to even be your friend if I hadn't talked to him. What you tried to do-"

"I know it. We all know it. He didn't deserve it." Tenten interrupted. "And I'm not entirely sorry that I did it. Reasons being, I think it made us all see what kind of lengths I would go to just to be with him."

"It's not about who can go the farthest in the wrong way to show him how far they would go for him," Haku said sagely, "it's about who can go the farthest the right way."

They all had a silent moment of this. In fact, they were like this for a decent five minutes before Tenten spoke.

"Anyone else feeling... _paranoid_?"

"Could be the ANBU."

"Nah...not the ANBU. She's normally over there, in the shadowed area of the ceiling," Tenten pointed directly at the hidden woman, but the surprised woman shook it off; the girls had been speaking last night about how she felt like she was a new type of sensor.

"Then who else? You said that you-" Haku started, but was cut off.

"Give me a minute..." The weapon's girl muttered. "The angle feels weird...like it's directly _above us_. But the person is...somewhere else. It's kinda vague, but the person is..." She looked around, "somewhere in **that** general direction." She swept her arm in an arc in a seemingly random cardinal direction. Out of curiosity, Hinata opened the window that was caught in the girl's arc and looked over that sector of the village, or more importantly, the stately Hokage Tower in the distance. This made her recall something of a saying or rumour in the past.

"I heard once that the Hokage has a crystal ball and he can watch anywhere and everywhere in the village with it." Hinata commented to the others.

"If it's him, why is he watching us? Is it Naruto he's watching? A half-dozen guys jumped in through the window last night and nearly killed us if I haven't recognized one of them from Nami no Kuni. Security, maybe?" Haku suggested the question.

"I hope so. If it's not that, then I think we were just his 'daytime television'."

 **=X=X=**

The Hokage quickly turned off the jutsu powering the crystal ball and hurriedly put it back into the drawer in his desk. "That was...unusual, to say the least. Tenten must have some sort of latent sensing talent. That needs some looking into," he mumbled. Before he could go any further, a few knocks on the door shook him out of it. He readied himself for the title of his office, before he asked that the person come in.

It was a one-legged Koharu that hobbled in on crutches. His face took on a frown instantly. It wasn't her presence that soured his mood, it was the reason why she was here. Again.

"Ohayou, Koharu-san. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"You don't seem entirely happy to see me," the woman observed easily.

"Why would I? Your son came back into the village recently, slaughtered nearly a dozen of my ANBU and I should be...happy?" As professional as this was supposed to be, it was hard not to let his own emotions come into play. "He's exiled for a reason, Koharu-san."

"He was even nominated to be Yondaime-"

"As was Orochimaru. Nominations in the past hardly matter in the present. And presently, if you're only here to entreat me to un-exile Ito, then I think it's past the time you should have left."

"He's dying."

"As am I. We all go in our time." The Hokage spoke frankly everywhere in this wreck of a conversation/argument. Why was she here? Couldn't she take a hint?

"No, not like his. But he's all I really have at my age. I've had to raise him, and I've done it all on my own." She said it straight-arrow, but Hiruzen didn't flinch; he wasn't the Fire Shadow for nothing. The old woman sighed. She was feeling her age on top of everything that had happened to her over the course of her life weighing down on her. "Perhaps you could summon for Tsunade to come and have a look at him-"

"That, Utatane, isn't even a pipe dream. Tsunade wouldn't wish to come back and furthermore, she wouldn't even want to spit in his general direction."

Koharu exhaled tiredly. "Can you really not pardon him?" She knew the answer already; in fact, she knew the answer long before she even asked the question.

"No."

"Then what about-"

"Koharu. You're testing my patience. Please leave."

The wizened old woman ceased her endeavour. Slowly but surely, she made a full 360' degree turn on her crutches and hobbled to the door, then let herself out through it.

She would not come back to this, the Hokage's office, ever again. She knew this. _They_ both knew this.

 **=X=X=**

The man was cloaked all in black; his shirt and pants had the dark shade, even his trench coat. That would have been enough to give him a mysterious vibe, but the hood over his head was a bit too much...it just made him look creepy. Not...not creepy. More like...intimidating. And a bit scary.

The bell over had rung like the usual when he had walked into the shop, but when she saw him enter, she felt as if the bell's ringing began to sound more like a death knell. But to be in her line or work was to be either so busy that her feet would grow corns and blisters, or to be so bored that she would wish that someone would just fire her so that she would have the excuse to move on to greener pastures.

And then there were her colleagues.

Goddamn dares. Why would they dare her to serve that guy? He looked like a rapist of the corpses of the people he killed. She didn't have a very positive imagination, but she was saving for a gift for her son, and that pooled money in that large jar was going to the person who lasted the longest by accepting dares.

The waitress got dared by her fellow workers to be the one to serve him. Figures. They were all scared of him too.

The waitress swallowed to get the mentally-created lump in her throat. "Good afternoon..." She trailed off, trying to get his name. You know, just in case she was murdered later, her peers might have picked up his name by being in hearing proximity.

"My name's It-" He stopped. "No. You can call me Hanson."

"Okay, 'Hanson'-san," the woman tried to keep her knocking knees from affecting her speech, "what would you like to order?"

"Oh shit..." the man cursed under his breath as soon as he heard the words, knowing the type of chaos words like this would cause in his mind.

" _Green tea!"_ One lone voice in his head chirruped.

" _Black coffee!"_ Another spritely one said.

" _Are you daft? Get the saki!"_ A third one ordered.

" _Piss off, you drinkaholics! Get_ _ **food**_ _! They must have meat in this dump."_ A meat fanatic yelled.

" _Shut the fuck up, Sheno! Get the saki! The saki._ _ **THE SAKI!**_ _Damn it, are you listening?!"_

" _Wait, what's going on? We're ordering something? Well...since we're famished..._ _ **GET EVERYTHING ON THE MENU! BUY OUT THE WHOLE DAMN RESTAURANT!"**_

" _What the fuck, you lard-ass? He should just get a glass of water and leave. We're finally losing some weight, and we should keep it up; we were putting on some weight not too long ago."_

" _This is a trivial matter, and he did not ask for your opinion."_

" _This is the only excitement we get nowadays. A reason to make yourself heard."_ One voice told the somewhat rational-sounding one.

" _Kisame, stop patronizing Itachi and help me get this_ _ **fuckin'**_ _ **heathen's**_ _attention! Hey! YEAH, you! Ito! Kill everyone for Jashin-sama!_ _ **YOU HEAR ME?!"**_

Ito groaned. "Goddamn bedlam, is what it all is. For Kami's sakes, I should really put some more work into making a seal that can shut them all up," he grumbled as his head began to hurt. Mentally, he began to silence the rowdier ones, but he held off on that, as he began to feel the side-effects of doing the deed.

"Sir?" The waitress queried to the muttering stranger, who seemed to exuding bad vibes. Well, even more so from his overall aloofness and his standard of dress. The waitress was really beginning to regret her line of work. Why did she have to meet all the weird customers? Like that big, white-spiky-haired last week who kept going on about 'toads' or 'great' whatever when she had asked for his name.

Finally settling some of the more 'restless' entities in his mind, he returned his attention to the waitress. "I'll have some tea. Ginger, please."

"Okay." The waitress was thankful for at last, she was able to get out of the man's presence. Unfortunately, she didn't know at the time that he would be staying for three more hours, idling his time in the establishment. She'd be giving him quite a bit of refills for the rest of her shift.

He was far too early for his little upcoming face-to-face chat. That, and the fact that he needed a quiet place to get his head in order. His recent trip to Ame to secure more potent ways of lengthening his life had been a bit of a bust, but at least some of the members of Akatsuki should be able to tide him over for a bit longer. He needed Minato's son. More importantly, he needed the strength of 'The Eight' that the boy will soon completely inherit from his father.

He was getting some neat little tricks and all, but the sum of all parts will always be better than the usefulness of each working separately. Naruto had no reason how powerful he could be but if Ito was sure of one thing, it was that he always made sure to have excellent insurance in case things went south.

Come to think of it, wasn't today the boy's birthday?

It was a shame; he was going to miss it.

 **=X=X=**

Hyena slept peacefully on her would-be-summoner's legs, despite the girls' carrying on inside the hospital room. Absentmindedly scratching at an itch behind one of her ears with a foreleg, she stayed anchored in her dreams that were filled with the screams of maimed people her father had killed and given her to dine on and to play with to pass the time. However, she lapsed from this when the land where she slept on began to move, and she roused herself enough just in time to land safely on her feet before Naruto's legs swung off the side of the bed to alight on the floor. "Uzumaki-sama?" She mumbled. "Wha-?"

It took her a little longer, before she realized her summoner was well and truly up. The summoner who had been in a coma for almost twenty days. "Uzumaki-sama!"

The girls belayed their talks and arguments about possible spies to see the blond out of bed. They all cried out his name, more than just one of them were deliriously happy to him up and about.

"Naruto-kun!" Haku was on his right, Tenten on his left, but Hinata was right before him and all had him in their embrace, even Hyena who was somehow in the mix. For a scavenging summon, she certainly knew how to get into the swing of things.

"Hold on." Hinata already had a sinking feeling already trying to suffocate the good juju that had finally come back to the room. She ceased hugging the blond and took a step back. "Naruto-kun?"

The teenaged young man was yet to answer to their affections and greetings that waited on him for him to awaken from his coma. His eyes, although open, seemed to stare _through_ the Hyuuga girl. They were blue at the onset, but the color of his ceruleans gradually washed out to become a creepy black, then his pupils became a stark bright silver and spokes of similar color began and grew from the pupil as its base and got to the boundaries of his eyes. It had a cartwheel design to it because of that, but that wasn't what was worrying. What was worrying, was that the Uzumaki-

"He's not really awake," Haku realized with disappointment and confusion after seeing the signs and sensing for them. His pulse was still too slow for that of person who would be awake, and his pupils were barely responsive to light. "Do you hear? He's not really awake. Let's just get him back in bed." She turned to the others, who were still staring. "Hinata-san? Tenten-san?"

"So...um, is that the dojutsu?" Tenten stared at the boy's eyes. "Wow. I've never seen anything like it, except for a glimpse of it back on the mission in Riyūsu Town. What do you think it does? Is it like the Byakugan? Sharingan?"

"It's my first time getting a good look at it."

Yugao, still in her hidden corner of the room, was still weighing her options of getting Naruto back into bed, or just keep trying to memorize the look of the boy's eyes. She had seen him activate something like this already back in the Hokage's office when they fought over Haku, but she didn't get to observe how his eyes had looked. Now, she felt more and more put off the more and more she looked at it.

Then, the Uzumaki started removing his intravenous lines and his leads on the wires to the monitors.

"Hey, hey! Naruto-kun!" Hinata gently slapped his face, trying to rouse him from his actions. "Naruto-kun? Stop-"

"Hey, hey, hey, what kind of a petty slapper are you, Hinata? We're trying to wake him, right?" Tenten butted in. "He's not some princess! At least shake him by the shoulders or something."

"No! Just get master back into bed. He's supposed to wake up on his own naturally."

Tenten's eyebrow nearly ticked off of her face as she waved a hand in front of the boy's blank face. "Is **this** _natural_?!"

"The servant girl is right," Yugao called from her shadowed corner. "Get the Uzumaki back into bed. Hinata, go call an orderly and a nurse to put him back on his IV lines and his leads."

The Hyuuga heard the voice but saw not the body it belonged to. Nevertheless, she knew it was the ANBU assigned to Naruto's security and obliged. However, left alone with Naruto, Haku and Tenten were having a warm time trying to get the boy back into his bed. It's not as if he wasn't moving. In fact, when he was pushed, he pushed back. It was then that they realized that the boy's muscles were built for a reason. That is, when Tenten pushed, she found herself on the ground on the other side of the room, nearly stumbling when Naruto pushed back. The _far_ side of the room.

"Damn! This is the same kind of guy who couldn't manage thirty push-ups?!" She swore under her breath. "This isn't right. He must be packing as much strength as Lee, give or take a little bit."

Hinata re-entered the room with nurse and the orderly. There was hardly any warning, but Haku was sent hurdling over his shoulder into the nurse who failed to duck the human projectile in time. All the Yuki had tried to do was trip him up and let him fall back into the bed, but apparently, it backfired.

"Uzumaki is awake from his coma, right? No one can move like that, even if they were sleepwalking."

"No, he's definitely not conscious. Or at least, not aware of his actions," the Yuki groaned out from the mixed tangle of limbs that was both her and the nurse. Said nurse voiced her complaints about being used as a stopping wall which made the servant get up in a hurry. "We should get him back into bed."

"Well, let's just knock him about 'till he wakes up, eh? Doesn't this mean that he's no longer in a coma?"

"Tenten, you and I both know that this coma can not be natural," the Hyena stated from where it was in the corner. "If that is the case, then this needs an unnatural solution."

"Well, what's that?"

"Put him back to sleep." Hinata mused. "It's not what I would have wanted, but..."

The orderly was already moving forward with a needle with said sedation in a syringe, one of a set he usually kept handy when he had to work with unruly patients. Naruto didn't even turn to acknowledge the man moving towards him from his blind spot. So it was hardly believable when the orderly got knocked onto his ass from a dizzying punch to his temple. The sedation needle came nowhere close to Naruto's person and clattered harmlessly to the floor. Without any more preamble, he sprinted to the open window and dived through it gracefully, even before the ANBU could intervene to stop him from leaving; it could have been because they thought that the boy wasn't intent on leaving especially through the window so swiftly. No one could really be blamed for that.

All three of the girls rushed to the open window, just in time to see him land on the ground a bit shakily, but he executed a roll to progress through it before he got back up and began running through the streets, raising a commotion below.

"Is he alright?" The nurse asked worriedly from where she was kneeling over the orderly, checking over his bleeding head. "We're on the fourth floor."

"Master's fine."

"Hmm...I wonder..." Tenten started suddenly.

"Wonder what?"

"I mean, look. He's in a hospital gown. Doesn't he feel a draft...you know, back _there..._?"

Sure enough, all of the Uzumaki's aft end was bare for everyone to see as he ran, but Haku rolled her eyes before going through the window as well. "Stare if you want to, I'm going to get Master."

"I'm coming too!"

 **=X=X=**

"There. You lost."

"Damn. Well, that's it. He beat all of us." The flame user of the T13 threw his hands up in exasperation. "Shit. I still can't believe it."

"Yeah, yeah. I told you. The craziest one of us is the smartest one of us." Doc commented. The statement only made Narkasai pissed enough to create a small fireball that incinerated the shogi board and the pieces in a flash blaze that reduced it to ashes.

"Whoa. The hothead that always has fire under the collar has a short fuse." Psychosis looked around, trying to see if anyone was grinning, or even smiling at his terrible punning. "Huh? Huh?" Still seeing nothing, he shrugged. "Ah, never mind. Fuck you guys. How can we be made by one guy and not share the same sense of humour?"

"You realized it first. We only share looks. Besides that, we have different mentalities and aspects of him."

"Well, not all the looks..." Psychosis muttered. "I'm still more way more better looking that the rest of you bastards."

While not in that regard in the poor joke since they were still basically clones, Doc was right. All thirteen of them were in the village and when he had seen them all, he had to marvel. Each of them had different growing rates, different mannerisms, walking gaits, scars and the like. Some of them had deliberately chosen to wear different eye contacts to have varying eye colors, different kinds of haircuts and even hair dyes. Although they looked remotely similar by face and body shape, even the whisker marks, it could be argued that Naruto had made human beings. They couldn't really be called clones anymore. But what awaited them upon death was anyone's guess. Naruto would still get the experience, but now, Doc was sure that they would leave a body behind. Yet another accomplishment, although a morbid one. In fact, it was only Narburei (Psychosis) that still retained the looks of his creator, save for a self-inflicted he had over his eyebrow that angled down over and to his cheek. Apparently, he must've felt no qualms carving up his face as if it weren't anything more than meat. A somewhat failed attempt at making himself 'ruggedly-handsome', according to him.

"Um..." Narsensa's urgent utter came, making them all look up. "It looks like Boss woke up."

"Damn good news, and about time if you ask me." Nariwa grumbled. "I hate waiting."

"Well, not quite like that," the sensor clone answered while he looked through a telescope that he had made with clear gems fashioned to act like convex lenses. "He isn't really acting like himself."

"Man, we're proof of that!" Narmizu raised his voice, nearly completed exasperated. "What do you mean?"

"Boss decided to go for a morning run through town...in his hospital gown."

"...Is it April the first or something?" Psychosis muttered, as a thought came to him. A foreign one.

"What does that have to do with anything? It's the tenth of October." Narsensa replied.

"Why are in here arguing about the date when we should be out there doing something about the boss nearly naked-streaking through the village?!"

"I dunno, there's a script or something? Besides, isn't today boss's birth-"

"Doc, are you sure he's the smartest?" Narkasai grumbled, interrupting the torture specialist from his line of speech.

"I have my doubts sometimes. But if he were the dumbest, then you wouldn't want to know; you're the one who just lost an entire game of shogi without him ever losing a piece." Narishi said matter-of-factly.

"Oh...right," the fire-user's face flushed hotly in embarrassment. "Errm, let's go...um...save boss's dignity and...some shit like that." He was first out the window, eager to save face, with four of the others beside himself at his heels.

 **=X=X=**

Fu was still looking.

Some part of her was still miffed at not being able to locate the Uzumaki and it wasn't for lack of trying. The few times she had risked asking had caused people to immediately tell her to leave him and damn well enough alone, because he was nothing but trouble. She couldn't even get a lead on how and where she could get a glimpse of him.

Fu had no idea of what to expect, but it was the most far-fetched that happened.

"It's the demon brat!" The shout raised over the din, as screaming people began to make themselves heard. "He's gone rampant on the anniversary! Get the hell out of the way! **OUTTA THE WAY!** "

People were clambering all over themselves, stampeding and whatnot from ahead of her in the street she was on that ran through the rather decorative-looking marketplace. She had been hoping to get to listen in on any rumours or snatches of information on how to find him, then this happens. Konahagakure was full of surprises, wasn't it?

And then Fu got hers. Her surprise that is.

The very same person she was searching high and low for, came running towards her. She called out to him, relieved that her search was over but instead, he 'acted' as if he didn't even hear her or see her call and wave to him. He darted past her, dash-vaulted over an overturned produce cart in his way, and was as quickly gone as he was seen. She was about to take off after him, but then she realized that he had been in a hospital gown. And if her memory served her right...

She suppressed a subtle reddening on her caramel cheeks as her confusion grew. "Naruto-kun...? What's going on?"

Then three more girls rushed past her, apparently chasing the Uzumaki. Then she could see swift movements of uniformed ninja flit past her as well as above her on the lightposts. It was a uniform she recognized and for good reason; it was one she saw quite often.

"Naruto's 'brothers'?"

Well, it was no question about her next action. She found herself in the pursuit as well.

 **=X=X=**

"So, nothing?"

"Not a peep. Kurama's dead silent too. Can't hear a peep from them over the mental link."

The five members of the T13, namely, the users of the earth and fire release, the sensor, the doctor and the torture specialist were all darting here and there like clandestine shadows in the heights and behind obstacles in the streets in their chase of their creator, as did three other girls. But it was the sensor, (obviously), who detected that there was a fourth one. At first, he warned the others that there was a newcomer, but any fears and surprises were unfounded when Fu melded into the group as if what was transpiring was completely normal.

"Hey." The greeting was casual.

"Hey yourself, girl!" Narkasai welcomed. "Small world, huh?"

Narburei held up his index and his thumb, showing how close they were. "Pretty tiny, if you ask me. Chasing after 'Naruto-kun', eh?"

"Errm...yeah! What's going on with him? He just breezed past me without saying anything, and I know he must've seen me!" She gestured at herself in mild frustration. "I'm noticeable, right?"

"Sure, uh, whatever you say," the torture clone rolled his eyes. They looked down from their vantage point of rooftop running to see the three girls running in the streets. "Hey, shush up. Listen." He pointed at the girls below. "Sounds like they're on to something."

"What did they say?" Fu wondered.

"Boss's servant just said something about his 'Reflex'; that it might be what's controlling him since it was always an unconscious reactive factor. And he seems to be heading in a constant direction." Narsensa stated.

"She's always been an observant one, eh?" Psychosis asked.

"This makes...sense, I guess?" Fu asked unsurely as she tried to analyze what she had heard in her mind. "Hold on. _Servant?_ "

"Oh man," Psychosis could barely keep in his giggles. "I knew that's what she'd ask first. She didn't pay attention to the other details, just the 'servant bit'."

"Hold on, guys! Who is she? How come Naruto-kun has a servant? Can't he pick up after himself or something? Is she a kunoichi? What's her name?"

"Questions, questions, so many questions!" Narburei said in singsong.

"Keep your fucking voices down," Narsensa ordered. "Wait...nah, never mind. They know we're following too. How'd that bun-haired girl-"

"Her name's 'Tenten'," the torture clone offered.

"Yeah, yeah, that selfsame one found out that we were following in the chase. She looked like she found out kinda easily, if you ask me."

"I **didn't** ask."

"Narburei, I swear, why the hell boss made you, I haven't a fuckin' clue."

"Someone to school the rest of you, for sure. Don't you guys know? Today's the boss's birthday. Me thinks that the coma, what he's doing now and the date are all connected, somewhere."

"His birthday? Then how come when I was in the market, I saw people selling fox mannequins and fox-headed wooden statues like it was some sort of festival? He told me that they hated him, and tried to kill him more than once on his birthday back when we were all in the savannah close to Taki," Fu asked, confused.

"They normally burn them at sunset before looking for boss to put him out of his misery," Narburei answered. "We'd better catch up to him before they start sharpening their kitchen knives and whatnot. They mightn't do it since he started getting ANBU guards since he became ten, but time is still of the essence. We can't leave shit up for granted."

"Um..." Doc spoke up for the first time as he pointed to their far right with his thumb. "In case you haven't noticed..."

The sun was beginning to hide itself below the landscape, casting shadows on the earth and multicolored hues in the sky. Fu had to abandon her shameless staring at it when the others signaled to get her attention. Due to the high foliage walls of Takigakure, she never got to see sunsets quite so...personally before and the few in the savannah didn't have as much as a vivid display.

"Fu?" Narburei quickly double-checked with the others over the mental connection. Seeing the mint-haired girl shaking herself to attention, he continued. "Me and the others were talking about pooling our efforts with them to stop him."

"You guys were _talking_?" She asked, dumbfounded that she had missed what sounded like an important bit of info, but hadn't even heard any background speech whatsoever. "I didn't even hear anything-"

"You don't know? We can talk to each other in our heads."

"Why don't you blab it to everyone you see, huh?" The rock-using member of the T13 nearly knocked Psychosis' head sideways with a straight punch when punctuating his final word.

Fu's eye began to twitch; it started off as slight before it nearly ticked entirely off of her face. "Is that so? For how long?"

"Since boss created us."

It wasn't any question as to why the girl would promptly create a clone to see if she could do the same, but sad to say, it didn't work. She dispelled the bunshin in disappointment, but not without making a silent vow to try again later. "For now, let's just stop this...crazy Naruto, -ssu?"

Choosing to file away the last of what he had heard (he believed it must've been some sort of verbal tick), Narburei rolled his eyes. "Uh huh, sure."

...

...

...

"You see them, huh?"

"I don't need the byakugan to see them, Tenten."

"I was talking to Haku, but good to know that you see them too."

"They couldn't all hide from us at the same time, especially while moving." Haku glanced up while she was running after the fleet-footed blond who seemed to always be out of their reach. "And there's a girl with them now, too. The one with a red sack on her back and dressed in white."

"Maybe she's a member of their little group. Whatever it is. They're not even hiding anymore-"

The five boys plus Taki kunoichi dropped from their rooftop dashing and fell into step with the girls running through the streets after the Uzumaki who still seemed intent on staying out of their reach. Before any introductions were made, Fu was busy observing the three girls and in the same vein, Hinata, Tenten and Haku were sizing up their somewhat clandestine companions. For the most part, Haku's gaze centered on their crests that they wore on over their heart's location and below the emblazon of 'T13' on their backs. They weren't wearing shades, but they still had their masks up and their hoods covered up the top portion of their faces and concealed them with shadow. Yuki recognized the crests for what they were; the boys' only real varying factors. The doctor among them had a blue cross, the sensor was that of a person seemingly pulsing green concentric circles and the torture clone's crest depicted a red skull with a black 'X' over the forehead. The last two boys, she guessed that one of them had a crest that represented fire and the other, rocks. ('Or earth', she mused. 'Some of them must have a particular affinity, just like the one that nearly electrocuted us back in Nami no Kuni'.)

Sure enough, it was the short-tempered one that lost his cool first. "What're you staring at?" Narsensa asked crossly.

"Just getting a good look at the guys who nearly killed us last night."

"I wasn't there."

"How many of you are there?" Tenten demanded.

"Several." The short answer came.

"And who's this one?" The aspiring weapon's mistress gestured to the Taki kunoichi with a thumb. "How come she's here, huh?"

"' _She'_ has a name," the mint-haired girl replied severely. "Isn't it common courtesy to introduce yourself before asking someone else for their name?"

"All right, all right, everyone take it easy." Psychosis tried to calm the tensions. "We're all trying to stop ol' Naruto from running around like a headless chicken."

"Why do you care so much? Do you have something to do with Naruto-kun behaving like this?"

The torture clone smiled to himself grimly. "You were all running after him first and you're asking us? Correlation is **not** causation."

Tenten ruminated on this for a while, before Haku spoke again. "Pleasure to meet you again... _Psychosis_."

"Aw, she remembered my name."

"And 'Doc'," she pointed at the medical-ninjutsu user before pointing then to Narsensa, "and 'Farsight'."

"I know you told me about some of the things that happened in Wave," Tenten added, "But man, this is kinda different than your stories." It was different for her, she supposed. 'They have the same 'T13' thing on their backs like Naruto-kun does. I thought that was just a brand name on the clothes or something, but it must be some sort of group thing. And their masks...it looks just like the one that I used to see Naruto wear when he was trying to fight baddies back when Konoha was nearly destitute. How could they know about something like that? They even have the same body-size as him, sound nearly identical to him. They must be clones. But how could they exist way back in Wave until now, even while Naruto was in a coma last night?' She scratched her head, confused. 'Maybe I can ask them later. Better find out something more about this Takigakure chick.' "My name's Tenten," she introduced herself to the mint-haired girl before pointing to her feminine companions. "And this is Haku and Hinata."

"Fu," the jinchuriki replied easily, taking note of Hinata as Naruto had once told her that she was a teammate of his. "I'm a friend of his. Naruto-kun, I mean."

"Since when?"

Before Fu could think of an answer to the question, Psychosis thought ahead quickly before the girl could potentially spoil the cover-up of Naruto not being in the village during his suspension. "Let's just stop Naruto from scaring the villagers and embarrassing himself."

"How the hell is he so fast? I mean, look at him!" Tenten pointed ahead of her to the Uzumaki who was always at least fifty yards ahead of them. "No matter how fast we go, he's always ahead of us!"

It was true. He didn't even seem to be using chakra augmentation in his speed, and even if he did, it probably wasn't much. Furthermore, he was rather efficient in his movement, going straight on roads and doing low vaults like kong vaults and dash vaults over obstacles in his way. The other members of the T13 moved like this as well but Naruto made them look as if they weren't trying hard enough to catch up to him, although they all were.

Where could he possibly be going? This was the unasked question of all.

"We'd better stop chasing and start using jutsu to stop him."

"If It's 'Reflex' really controlling him, then he'd just dodge it easily."

This little info was lost on Fu, who still hadn't a clue as to what this 'Reflex' thing was, although Hinata and Tenten had been filled in already. The jinchuriki attempted to cut him off by some inherent use of spinning webs using her bugs, but the Uzumaki merely hurdle jumped over the first set and slid under the last that would have ensnared his upper torso. "Are you sure he's not aware of what he's doing?" Fu asked unsurely as she willed the webs to rapidly degenerate into non-existence.

Haku made mirrors ahead of the blond to create a dead end so he'd be forced to come to a stop. Instead, Naruto did a tic-tac wall run and leapt cleanly over and continued on his way and Haku was forced to bring down her ice before it affected anyone else, including her and her companions. "I was sure before, but now, I take it that this is more than that."

Nariwa did a quick handseal to perform a shunshin to catch up, then did it once more to secure a place next to his creator. At that point, he swung an arm to clothesline the Uzumaki but instead, before Nariwa's own 'Reflex' could react, he got swung off with his own momentum to the side and sent crashing through a fruit stall.

"Is he alright?" Hinata asked with concern.

"Don't worry, ma'am, he's got a head like a rock." Psychosis tapped his head with a knuckle. "Gonna take more than a few oranges to hurt him. Well except for the wooden splinters. And the nails. And the- _Oh_...he's getting up. He's fine."

Narsensa 'pinged' his chakra in a pulse. "He's about to run through a crowd of people way up ahead. The festival's getting ready to start up there and it wouldn't do for the antagonist of his own show to make an appearance."

Fortunately, Naruto must've realized that as well, but more than likely for the sake that he would lose running momentum if he met up with the thick crowds. He leapt up to a nearby roof and began rooftop running and his pursuers followed suit. "He's got enough sense for that, I reckon." Psychosis thought out loud. "I've been thinking about the direction we're all going. I think he's going to the library. It's the only location he knows on this side of the village, up here in the northern sector."

"What? The library? Why would he go up there? It's not as if he's a fan of books."

"Are you saying he's dumb?" Fu asked dangerously.

"No, no!" Tenten answered almost nervously as she tried to mollify the girl. "I'm only saying he's not the bookish type. You know, he prefers living the action than to read about it! I mean that kind of way!"

"Well, we can't stop him, what're supposed to do? Just tail him until he stops?" Haku asked the unasked question. "I'm sure that since he's... _'special'_ ," she kept in mind that she didn't know Fu that well yet, "he's got loads of stamina to spare." Soon after saying this, she could see that Hinata and Tenten were by now using chakra to speed up their movement in order to keep up with the rest of the pack. More proof that Naruto was showing them up.

"I don't get it. Is that hospital gown aerodynamic or something?" Nariwa complained once he was in speaking range as he struggled to catch up to the others since taking a spill from his creator. "How the hell are we supposed to stop him?"

" **We** can't beat him since he'd probably know how we'd fight. Anyone got any new tricks that can help us out here?" Doc demanded.

"Nope." "Nil." "Haven't any." Three of the T13 members sounded off in the negative.

"Well, what about you?" Haku asked the one still quiet.

Narburei looked thoughtful. "I'll be right back." He fell off course and took a sharp right, leaving the others to continue on his own way on his own.

"That one's a bit weird. What's his name?" Tenten asked in a huff.

"He called himself 'Psychosis' in Wave country," Haku offered before recalling the events sourly. "Right before he knocked me out."

"Whazzat mean? There's 'Psycho' in the name and that's one thing I want to steer clear from."

Hinata grinned at this as she saw the Library loom up ahead. If they were running a race, they were in a decisive second, as Naruto had just vanished inside through the front doors. "Heh. Tenten, maybe you're the one who should read a book, instead of trying to 'live the action' all the time."

 **=X=X=**

Shiarta was more than ready to call it quits.

It had been a long coming, yet, it had been a constant. He was beginning to despise working in this library. If he had saved his money more efficiently while he had been working decades ago, he would have had a tidy sum for his pension. Now, after two decades of doing the duties of a librarian in this lonely establishment, it made him wonder why the hell he was living so long. Not suicidal, mind you. The monotony itself in his job was suicide enough. Just wondering how much use he still had in the grand scheme of things.

It hadn't been quite three weeks since his last patrons had been here. In his failing eyesight, he couldn't really tell them apart, but the splash of yellow on their head and stature reminded him of the Yondaime, nearly to the point of mistaking them for him. They might have been his sons for all he knew. They stuck around for a long time and had claimed to have read out the contents of the entire repository of books.

Then one day, they vanished. Right before his eyes.

And now, someone who looked the same as they did just traipsed inside the Library's front doors.

Life just keeps getting stranger, didn't it?

"Hello sonny. How ar' you?"

The boy walked about, his vacant black-and-silver eyes seemingly looking everywhere. He didn't provide the aged man behind his counter any mind. Said man shrugged, before he began to pour himself a cup of nearly lukewarm green tea from a kettle, having been prepared nearly an hour ago. So what if the boy wasn't sociable? That wasn't his business.

Then the silent boy swung himself over the counter, _then_ it became _his_ business.

"Hey, you can't do that-...hold on." Shiarta peered curiously through dim eyes. "Sonny, is that a **dress** you're wearing?" And by Kami, he was hoping that the boy was wearing underwear that matched his complexion, or else what he was seeing back there was the lad's ass. "You lost?! This 'ere is a library, not a 'Place of the Night'. What the hell are you doing?"

Apparently, he was hard of hearing too.

The front entrance crashed open again but this time, several people came through all at once. "Hey, old man!" One of the boys called out. "You see where the guy that just came in here went?"

Apparently, the deaf, inappropriately-dressed rude kid had pricks for friends. He couldn't even bring himself to shush them since this was a library, since there wasn't really anyone else to be disturbed. "He's going through the-...what the hell am I doing?" The librarian grumbled the last under his breath before he piped up. "Is he a friend of yours? Doesn't he have anyone at home to teach him any manners? Just take him and get out."

Well, today started out boring. Some part of him was enjoying this change of pace, even though up until now, it had been less than savoury.

"I'm sorry, librarian-san." One of the girls answered. "He's not...feeling like himself right now. If you could show us where he went, we'll take care of him."

All right, so maybe not all of them were pricks. That one girl who looked like she was in a kimono sounded quite pleasant and well-raised. Perhaps the rest of them could prove themselves to be courteous as well.

Shiarta sighed as he saw most of the others looking about and calling 'Naruto-kun' this and 'Boss' that throughout the library. 'Perhaps they wouldn't', he mused as he pointed through the doorway beside him. "He went through here into the back room."

It was unnecessary, for it was the selfsame person that was sought re-appeared through the doorway from the dark room beyond him and held a book in his hand. Even with his somewhat-poor eyesight, the man saw the book and his eyes widened. "Hey, you brat! What are you doing with the Yondaime's book?! Give it back!" He shuffled over to the boy who stood straight and still as if he was waiting on the man to intervene. Haku realized that the man's aged body couldn't possibly handle anything that Naruto could dish out in 'Reflex' and it was only be her own action of using a body flicker to get between the two before anything adverse could happen. "Please, don't touch him. He might become... _violent_ ," she lied through her teeth. But it was true. Kind of.

Somehow realizing in his subconscious that the man was belayed from action, he walked on through the little door in the counter, all eyes trained on him. He fell into a lotus seating position and opened the book.

"What's he doing?" Shiarta asked, now curious.

"Reading, I guess?" Tenten muttered from across the room, nearly sarcastic. She was tempted to approach the blond, but his sudden movements startled her, as well the others.

Smashing his fist onto the tile, he broke it into several pieces from which he removed a single shard and began writing kanji letter by letter by scratching the floor. As he flipped through the book, he'd stop every now and again and write a new one. The others all crowded to one side to see what he wrote bit by bit, but it wasn't much to go on.

"What's it say?" Nariwa asked impatiently.

Hinata peered over Naruto's shoulder. "He's not done yet. But it looks like he wrote: 'My picture looks over the village'."

"He's still writing!" Haku reminded them all before she tried to read out what the boy continued to write. "'It's'...'worth'..."

"'A'...'few'..." Tenten continued.

"'Hundred'...'words'." Shiarta finished.

"'My picture looks over the village. It's worth a few hundred words'. What does that mean?" Narkasai wondered aloud.

"That the boy needs an exorcism?" Shiarta deadpanned. "Now give me the book back-"

"Wait...I think he's waking up, -ssu!" Fu nearly squealed excitedly.

Indeed. Naruto seemed...less out of it. He shook his head and snorted before looking up at everyone with dazed blue eyes. "Huh?"

"Yep. He's awake." Tenten mumbled. Then she realized what she had just said. "Wait...he's AWAKE!"

"DOGPILE ON NARUTO-KUN!" Before anyone could tell her that he was just re-emerging from a coma and she should take it easy on him, Fu was the first to tackle the Uzumaki on his back after she raised the cry. But as it usually is, people found it easy to commit a wrong once someone else has. Needless to say, everyone else save for Haku and Doc and the old man ended up in the mess of bodies laughing and twisting about on the floor as Naruto began bawling for them to get off of him.

"AIR! I need...AIR!"

It was this scene that Narburei found himself seeing once he maneuvered himself through the front entrance with his own surprise. "Hey everyone! I got some sheet-cake! You know, for when boss wakes up-..." He looked a little closer and saw a boy in a hospital gown wheezing as he struggled to get Fu and the others off of him. "Oh. Hey boss. You're awake. Um...Happy birthday! It was kinda hard to get on a public holiday, so I had to pay the baker extra money to open her shop to give me this." He held up the sheet-cake that had a kunai stuck upright in it as if to gesture it to everyone with emphasis that the occasion was the boy's birthday, which nearly everyone else had neglected to remember. However, his countenance somewhat changed when he saw the kanji scratched into the floor. "What the hell is that?"

No one answered but it was aged librarian who broke the quiet. "Hold on...today's a **public** _holiday_? So I **didn't** have to open the library today? Ah, goddamnit."

 **Felt like a good note to end the chapter. Sorry it took...** _ **104**_ **days to update. Wow. I will never cuss out a fellow writer for not updating quickly ever again. I swear, a lot of things came up, like the usual skills training and other fics and...and...err, games. And...(looks down in shame) YouTube. Damn you YouTube Autoplay! You're a killer of my time!**

 **Well, as for the Yondaime's riddle, we can get that it's kinda simple, but it's not too simple to not meet the requirements to be a riddle in the first place. In fact, I bet that at least 75% of you will guess the wrong answer first, then guess the right answer second. After a long time to think about it. But we've got some foreshadowing, huge hints that the fix's antagonist got a huge (READ: MASSIVE) power boost and I feel comfortable enough to move on with the fic in the next chapter, with the exams about to get started. Take care, and hope I update soon... Sooner.**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	41. Chapter 41

**Yeah, I took a while. Sorry. But I hope you enjoy this chaper, nonetheless.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

 **41.**

"You looked like you were enjoying yourself."

No reply came, so Psychosis repeated his taunt again. He was slightly miffed when his creator still didn't answer but he shrugged it off. He had thought it would have been good to laugh off some of the stress he might've still had but apparently, Naruto had other things in mind. Why, the Torture Specialist had no idea.

"You could have knocked the girls off, but you just lied there. You liked feeling them all over you, huh?"

"Basically all of you were dog-piling all over me."

Narburei was offended. " _ **I**_ wasn't. _**I**_ was getting cake. Happy birthday, boss."

Naruto altered his gaze to the nearly demolished sheet cake that rested on the table, obliterated by those who partook of it. "Oh…yeah, thanks."

Narburei's tone rapidly became lower and lower, indicating that he was getting upset. "Would it kill you to be a bit more… appreciative? Happier, maybe? It's your birthday. You know, 'happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you~'," he sang the words off-key, but his point had been made. Naruto somehow couldn't find it in him to stay jaded anymore; he rolled his eyes and made a tiny grin.

"Well, _excuse_ _me_ for only waking up from a coma a few hours ago."

"Still moved pretty good for a guy whose muscles should have atrophied, getting reduced to mush during your coma." Psychosis regarded him with a stink eye. "Must have something to do with your Uzumaki blood, know what I mean?"

Naruto grew quiet as he began pulling on his clothes. The Torture Specialist sensed that he had struck a nerve; it had to be the 'family' nerve, apparently.

For years, Naruto had wondered about how he'd come to be. To be born, to be a jinchuriki, to be orphaned. With his mind constantly recalling, constantly remembering, constantly reliving and constantly thinking, it was hard not to consider why he was bereft of a family and a multitude of problems while growing up.

Unfortunately, Narburei caught the boy's current line of thought. "Hmm-hmm, yeah. Ninety-nine problems, but chakra _ain't_ one, am I right?"

"Stay the hell out of my head, Psychosis. You're the last one I want in it-…Wait…what did you just say? Uzumaki blood?"

"Uh huh. I started getting smarter about certain things. Must be the goddamn clones you left to read out the whole friggin' library. All I really got was that they 'possessed an acute and powerful capacity for chakra and permanence'."

Naruto waited for him to continue, but to his surprise, his clone did now. "Is that all you got on the topic?"

"Yeah, why?"

Naruto thought about it for a while. "I know a lot more about it than that." He recollected snippets, paragraphs, snatches of them in passing mention and the like. "You think I got knocked out by some kind of backlash?"

"Probably. The rest of us only lost a week. You were out for close to a month. Me thinks you got most of-"

"-The knowledge." Naruto finished. He finally exited the small dressing closet, clad in the clothes he had been wearing when he had first arrived to the hospital. "I got most of the knowledge, right?"

"I was gonna say 'mostly useless book-learning, but whatever," Narburei shrugged. "Anyway, you should go get some rest and-"

"Rest? Really? I've done enough of that."

…

…

…

"Master, you should get some rest."

Naruto's eyes flitted from Haku, then to Psychosis, then back to Haku. "Is this some kind of conspiracy?"

"A coma isn't a restful sleep. It's as logical as calling ice 'food' just because it's a solid. Just because you were unconscious doesn't mean that you were resting." Haku fought the urge to roll her eyes. "Besides. You were exerting yourself-"

"I wasn't exerting myself…" His argument died in his throat when he saw the heat in her glare rising. "Fine," he grumbled. "Damn, it's like you're my mother or something. I don't need minding."

"Says the guy who took her on as a servant," Psychosis reminded. He glanced at Fu, who looked like she wanted to ask something…like how the hell his creator ended up in a coma, had a servant, and all kinds of other controversial subjects. "Looks like Fu wants to talk to you about some…things." He gestured to the other girls with a roll of his eyes.

Naruto gestured to the Haku who was doing a quick checkup of him. "Psychosis, can't you see that this is a bad time?" He looked up to Haku, who had a stethoscope pressed over his heart's location. "Haku, are you sure you're the one who has to do this?"

"Would you prefer someone else?" Haku asked too innocently as she jotted down her findings. "Someone more _qualified_?" The hint had an air of danger to it; it was as if she was daring him to answer inappropriately.

"No, it's not that," the boy hastily defended. "I mean, like license-wise."

"Since you nearly killed the orderly today, they're all afraid of you," Haku replied tartly. "Since they saw that I have some experience in the medical-field, they asked me to do it. It's nothing much."

"Um, Naruto-kun?" Fu called from across the room to the boy who sat on the medical table. "Hinata here tells me that she's your girlfriend. Is that true?"

All motion and independent speech stopped as everyone turned to Naruto, who stammered. "Uh…um…I…" 'Oh damn, what's the safest answer?'

" **I don't think there is one, boy."** Kurama mumbled. **"'Cause I'm seeing four girls right here who're each basically expecting different answers. I mean, it looks like Haku wants a piece of this, then there's Tenten, Fu, I'm guessing that she sounded a little jealous, not to mention Hinata who's probably expecting you to agree with her. Ay-ya-ie."**

Naruto sweated slightly. "Well, you see, we had a date, I don't know if that makes us official-…" His gaze turned to the other side of the room that. "Hokage-sama? Why are you here?"

All eyes turned to face where he was looking at, only to see that there wasn't a soul occupying the place. By the time they looked back to Naruto, the boy had already breezed through the door, banging it shut behind him. Haku sighed when she realized this before turning back to her still-unfinished chart. "Well, if he could run away like that, not to mention what he did today…" She finished ticking off the boxes. "He's as healthy as a horse." She looked up to regard the other T13 members, only to find that all of them had left via shunshins, save for Psychosis. "Hmm? Where'd the others go?"

"Oh, we uh, gotta bounce." The clone gave them a friendly wave. "Maybe we can all get together later." He left through the door normally, leaving the girls behind to wonder and try to process what had just happened. That is, before Tenten's face lit up in realization.

"Ha! He said that it was only one date, so that doesn't make you two official!"

"He didn't finish his sentence!" Hinata defended.

"Whoa, whoa, when was this date? Tell me about it!" Fu begged, eager for details to determine whether Naruto was truly in a relationship or not. The entire fiasco was enough to make Haku slap her forehead in exasperation.

"I've got to be Master's servant for **five** years. Five years left of _this_?"

 **=X=X=**

After the vein was raised, a single hypodermic needle was inserted and the syringe's contents emptied into it. Kabuto took a few steps back from the screaming man who was strapped to the table; he wasn't at all anxious to see what new side effects might take over this time. This had nothing to do with fear. He was only being cautious; he hadn't come to be in this position by being reckless, especially that of being Orochimaru's right hand man.

Said person stood beside him as they watched the serum begin to take over the unwilling patient, who continued to scream and convulse and froth at the lips like a rabid animal. However, it was a newcomer through the heavy metal door who actually had a shred of empathy when he saw the suffering 'patient'. Or at least, wished he had even a bit more of it. "Whoa, Orochimaru, you're at it again? Poor bastard." He gestured to the pain-wracked man on the table. "Well, if there's one thing I can compliment you on, it's perseverance. Or stubbornness, still not too sure which."

"You're late, Ito. You should have been here yesterday, at the latest."

"Had to start up some rumors about my whereabouts being elsewhere. After all, I know how much you value your privacy. It wouldn't do for people to start catching wind of where you are just because they were trying to track me." Ito paused here, wondering if he had traipsed into an ambush. Orochimaru still looked calm; was this a good sign, or bad sign? No matter how long he lived, he had always been wary of non-emotive people. His thoughts wandered to Tenten; perhaps her seal had come into its season, already? It would help him immensely; if he could get to her. Knowing his own incapability to continue manifesting abilities from seals, he needed a surrogate. Perhaps sooner rather than later, if he was going to continue working with the likes of Orochimaru.

Said man didn't answer immediately. He remained silent as he regarded the ninja clad in the trench coat and hood. "You went to the village."

"What about it?"

"My informants let me know about your visit to your mother, Koharu. You made quite a mess. But something tells me that your true _intention_ was the Uzumaki. What business do you have with your rival's son?"

Ito stared at the screaming man on the table who continued to bawl his lungs out before turning back to Orochimaru. "That's none of your concern. What I need to know is whether or not you have completed the curse seal that would allow me to imbibe natural chakra like the orange haired freak, Juugo. Better than him, in fact, since all he does is turn into a beast with no mind."

Kabuto struggled to refrain from rolling his eyes. 'I suppose we're all freaks.' "The seal isn't complete. We're merely testing Lot 307 on this subject here." He pointed to the man whose shrieks had started to die down before his Caucasian complexion turned blood red. With a final sigh, the man gave up the ghost; Ito grimaced at the sight.

Ito sounded as if he'd have laughed, although it was hard to tell, given how serious his normal tone sounded. "You mean _Attempt Number 307_. I don't understand why you refuse to let me assist. We both know that I'm your superior in fuinjutsu, Orochimaru. If you let me assist, we could have had this completed already."

"And I'm your superior in juinjutsu and I'm the one with Juugo at my disposal, both things you clearly lack." Orochimaru turned away from the dead man to his visitor. "Besides, I'm reluctant to share my own work with my own rival."

"Just because we were both nominated for Yondaime doesn't make us rivals. We're not even from the same age group. But I want that seal perfected, especially if you want my aid to raze the Hidden Leaf to the ground." Ito clicked his tongue to further hint his disappointment. "Besides, if you're worried about me stealing your idea, you have nothing to fear. I only need it to function, not mass produce to peddle."

Orochimaru was no fool, and he knew that while Ito had his issues, even mental ones, he shouldn't be underestimated. To be nominated for Yondaime was a big thing; if they had had a massive star-eyed accomplishment like Minato, they could've been the one with their heads on the Hokage Monument. Minato was a war hero with nearly supernatural abilities, Orochimaru condemned as a serial kidnapper and murderer by means of his outlandish experiments, and Ito's invention of Kekkei Genkai theft. Although the man was careful about guarding about how he managed to pull off such a feat, Orochimaru had long ago decided that he could find a way to manipulate Ito into divulging it. Or even an autopsy. The rogue sannin didn't care much either way.

"Why do you want the seal?"

"Why do you want to destroy the Village? Trivial questions. Just get…it…done." Ito snarled through clenched teeth. He made an about turn, but he stopped when he sensed movement from Orochimaru. "We may have our differences, but consider what you stand to gain and lose when you choose to cross me." Orochimaru couldn't see Ito's eyes, but he could sense an aura change; he had fought Itachi to a miserable outcome and had never forgotten the man's presence and aura-…the very same that he felt now. Could it be that Ito had assimilated the man's abilities, that is, his sharingan? The very thought burned him up inside.

His kunai slid back into its holster. Almost immediately, the aura he had sensed lifted, but not entirely; at least, not until Ito had used swift release and ran off as quick as a blink. As soon as he left, Orochimaru began considering the fates of the members of the Akatsuki. If it were true that Ito had effectively neutralized Itachi (and somehow manifested the Uchiha's abilities, then what of the others? He'd never made a decision without being well informed first, and now certainly wasn't the time to deviate from the practice.

He turned to Kabuto, who had already begun to busy himself in the creation of a new Lot. "Kabuto? Place the experiments on hold."

"Orochimaru-sama?" He asked him his name as if to confirm the man's request.

"I need you to…run an errand. Go check up on Sasori. And the others, while you're at it. And hurry back, for I will need you to participate in the upcoming exams."

"Hai, Orochimaru-sama."

 **=X=X=**

Everything had aged by nearly a week, but to Haku, time must've been moving in especially quickly in the case of her master. He had that 'glazed' look in his eyes that she often saw in adults; usually the ones that complained about life's problems, social issues and other such grievances. She could tell that it was getting to him; the riddle that he himself had written was enough to make him want to tear his own hair out.

Besides the riddle, there were other questions directly relating to the riddle.

What possessed him to write it?

Was this the Yondaime's doing?

How?

Why?

He merely mumbled a small greeting to his servant before heading straight upstairs to his bed. His servant girl took another minute to consider what should be done before she followed him to his room a few minutes later with a cup of tea. After announcing that she was coming in, she entered the room to find him lying face down with his head buried in his pillows. She placed the cup of the steaming stuff on the nearby bedside table before seating herself on the bed beside him.

"So how was the date with Hinata, Master?"

"Fine." Came his muffled answer.

"It's the most common lie in the world," the girl replied in a knowing voice.

"If it's fine, I'll tell you. If it's not, I'd still tell you. Besides, that's my opinion." He lifted his head and propped himself up on one elbow. "What was your opinion, since you were there, huh? Hinata-chan used her byakugan and spotted you, Fu-chan and Tenten-chan spying on us. Doesn't the word 'privacy' mean a thing to anyone?"

"While I'm not sure about their reasons, I only came out of concern for you." While this was true, this was only her minor reason. Her primary reason was most likely identical to the others she had been with; mixed femme curiosity, slight resentment to Hinata and scouting the blond for numerous other reasons, all hinging on romanticism. Haku thought of all these things while trying to keep down her blush of embarrassment for having been found out. "Reasons being, this riddle you have been obsessed with-"

"And who wouldn't?" The boy shot back. "This is huge!" His eyes flitted to the tea as he sat up. "Is that for me?" After seeing her nod, he took it up gratefully. "Arigatō. Hmm…what kind is this?"

"Chamomile and Lavender."

"Hmm…" He tried it, and found that it was vying for the title of being the best tasting tea he had ever tasted. " _Matricaria chamomilla_ and _Lavandula_. It's fantastic." (1)

Haku grew confused at the former. "You're welcome. But what was-"

"The proper scientific name of the plants," Naruto offered. He just felt like spouting off something he had learnt from the massive knowledge intake.

Haku felt her blood pressure threaten to spike. "This is another thing I don't understand. It's just like the riddle is for you; Naruto Uzumaki is a riddle for everyone else to try to figure out."

"What if I don't want to talk about myself?"

"We…no…" She changed her response. " _I_ …would like to get to know you better. Someone who's more than just my master. More than just your name and tendencies. I don't even know your likes and dislikes-"

"I like your cooking." He said bluntly. Seeing her irked expression plus folded arms, he rescinded his interjection. "Alright, fine. What do you wanna know?"

"I just want to get to know Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto smiled at this. "Okay, Haku-chan."

 **=X=X=**

Tenten sipped her soup calmly, unlike everyone else. All the others in the orphanage were eating like hogs, save for her confidant there, Asami. Hell, even the owner was eating his food as if there was someone who had intentions of stealing it. Given how his ramen was disappearing, Tenten couldn't help but grow suspicious at seeing it. It reminded her of someone she knew.

"So, Masato?" She called across the large table to the orphanage manager. "A coma, huh? Kinda serious."

"That was done with over more than a fortnight ago," the man replied between mouthfuls. "It felt like I fell asleep, next thing I knew, I was waking up and people were telling me how I lost a whole week of my life."

"Speaking of that, how old are you, anyway?" Tenten asked innocently.

"Fourt-…forty. What's this about?"

Tenten didn't say anything, but she could've sworn that the man was going to say 'fourteen', but quickly changed his response to 'forty'. Like Naruto's recent birthday, hmm? Maybe she was jumping to conclusions, but although when she thought more about it, she realized that there were too many holes. Where did Masato come from? What kind of profile did he have? Not to mention, why did he-

"Tenten? You're spacing out again. Do you need your anti-crazy medication again-" Asami started, before he was flicked on his nose by the offended girl. "Ow! Damn."

"You know that boat sailed a long time ago, Asami-nii. Kami, I swear, I have to wonder why Naruto-kun gave up his place so you could stay here. I bet he'd tease me less."

"You know I don't mean it," the boy snickered. "So uh, I didn't know that you knew that guy so well, even now. I've been hearing a lot of talk about him from some of the adults. I don't think you should hang around with him. He sounds like bad news."

Tenten didn't show how upset she was, but she was steaming on the inside. "You mean the same guy who wanted to be here in the orphanage who took pity on you and decided to let you have his spot? I mean, with all the crying you did-"

"Alright, alright, fine!" Asami muttered. "Damn it, you're embarrassing me in front of the others!"

"Teach you in case you wanted to call me 'crazy' again," the girl said smugly. "Besides, you can't trust hear-say." She turned back to Masato, who had finished his meal. "Speaking of Naruto, it's kinda strange that the both of you would lapse into comas at the same time."

"It might not have to be the same time. Maybe there was even something that we ate that caused this. They're still investigating this fiasco." The man defended.

'More flimsy excuses. I mean, look at him!' Tenten observed the man who ran the orphanage. 'How come I didn't see this before?! It's so messed up! I was even looking up to him like a father! Damn it, Naruto-kun, what were you thinking?!' Sure, there were still a lot of holes, but Tenten was sure. Besides the similarities and her newfound talents, she could _sense_ Naruto's presence in the man.

Masato had to be a clone.

Tenten didn't know. She wasn't sure how the man could exist for so long as a doppelganger, even under disguise. She couldn't comprehend how no one else even caught wise of this.

And to think, she was supposed to be the mental person? Not to mention, how did she not see this sooner?

She stood up, her bowl of soup only half-eaten. "I'm going to bed early. The chunin exams are starting tomorrow."

"Okay," Masato reached for her bowl and began helping himself. "Goodnight."

'Yeah, goodnight, Naruto-kun, Tenten thought. 'Tomorrow, I can't wait to hear your excuse for this one.'

 **=X=X=**

"Morning, Hinata-chan, hey Shino."

The Aburame merely nodded in response, while the other greeted him with a hug. "Ohayou, Naruto-kun." She looked him over once; he was dressed in his usual ninja outfit, as did herself and their third teammate, but when she stopped at his face, she leaned in closer. "I must admit, you look better than yesterday."

"Oh yeah, Haku-chan made me some chamomile tea last night, and then she gave me a massage," he said carelessly as he rolled his shoulders and his neck. "It really got all the kinks out, not to mention, I slept like the dead."

The Hyuuga's face contorted strangely when she heard this. "Um…I could've done that…the massage. I've been reading up on it." A tiny blush graced her cheeks. "Y-You could've asked me for one."

"Really?" Naruto regarded her for a moment with a 'why-the-hell-not' look. "Okay. Next time. Maybe I'll even learn it too," the boy muttered to himself. "It felt nice to get one. Hinata-chan might like one too."

The girl heard what he had mumbled to himself but before she could say anything about it, their teacher came into existence via shunshin before them just before they made it to the far door. "Good morning, Kurenai-sensei," she greeted. "Is something wrong?"

"No. Well, besides me forging Naruto's signature on his registration for the exams, everything's peachy."

"Wait, what?" Naruto asked, befuddled. "I had to register? No one said anything about that."

"Of course you had to. You were taking an extended nap when the deadline for you to sign was about to pass. I just put a pen in your hands and then made you write your name. It looked shaky, but it counted." The woman said matter-of-factly. "I could truthfully say that you signed it. That's what counted, and now you're here. I knew you'd want to take part."

"Huh. That's cool of you sensei."

The woman nodded. "Yeah. Just don't let it happen in the exam. Falling into another coma, I mean. It wouldn't do." The boy mock saluted her at that, promising that it wouldn't happen. "Alright, fine. Besides, all three of you needed to show up for this to count anyway."

Naruto faked a look of emotional hurt. "Aww, so that's why you helped me?"

"No, Naruto. These exams wanted the best of the best, so I knew I had to send you three." Both Naruto and Hinata smiled broadly at that; hell, even Shino smiled a little bit. "Good luck."

Naruto clapped his hands twice. "Rousing speech, sensei!" The woman suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and ushered them inside, before shutting the door behind them. It was on the other side of the door, however, that the gravity of the exams finally hit them. All of the occupants of the room had varying wavelengths of general frowns, being pissed, or just normal seriousness, but for some reason, all of that rested on Team eight.

"Huh, fresh meat." A burly teen with a Kumo hitai ate catcalled from the bench where he sat. "Check out the little kids that just walked in."

"Fresh meat, huh?" Naruto growled. "Well…uh…well…we would have…" the boy trailed off. "Damn, what to say to that?" The teen chortled at the Uzumaki while Shino shook his head.

"Naruto?" Shino spoke clearly and gravely. "You know I don't speak often, but it had to be said. _That_ was a horrible comeback."

"I know," Naruto muttered demurely. "I was going to say what I read in a book once, but he wouldn't have understood it unless he lived in Suna." He glanced over at where he saw a trio of Suna ninjas, one of whom was staring at him while petering out killing intent. "I don't think I want to make it any worse between me and _that_ guy. What's his problem with me anyway?"

" **The redhead's got Shukaku in him. The One-Tailed Racoon-Dog. Crazy son-of-a-bitch, that one. The redhead's crazy too. If he isn't, then he probably isn't far off."** Kurama explained.

"A tanuki, huh?" Naruto whispered. "So he can sense you in the same way you're sensing him?"

" **Yeah. He's always trying to set himself up on some kind of pedestal that he's the strongest. You know how it's always the small fry who has the biggest mouth. Well, you** _ **should**_ **know what I'm talking about."**

'So help me, Kurama, I can still change the mindscape to a living hell. Don't push me.' The Biju didn't bother to answer his jailer, and settled for merely watching the developments. Naruto glanced around, trying to see if he could spot anyone he knew. "Where's-" He finally got a glimpse of green hair between the arm-wrestling forms of men from the Mist. "Fu-chan?" Ignoring cautions from his teammates, he had already gone over to where he suspected her to be. "Fu-chan!" How's it…going?" His eyes widened when he finally reached the girl, and his jaw dropped.

There she was. Instead of what he thought he had seen, it was actually the very same Taki kunoichi who was doing the arm-wrestling with one of the men; the other man he'd seen had merely been a spectator. But instead of having her arm felled in the contest of strengths against the much larger man (who should have been superior in that regard), she was holding her own quite well. In fact, she was still calm, while the man was practically had a tear beginning to form in his eyes in his efforts to win. Try as he might, he hadn't managed to even budge the teen's hand. "Hey, Naruto-kun! You made it, -ssu!" Not tarrying a moment longer, she slammed the man's hand right through the sturdy table on the other side, smashing it into pieces. The boy gawked at the spectacle and noticeably flinched when the girl got up from the table and reached out to embrace him. "Something wrong?" She was offended by his faux pas; his expression mirrored the ones that she normally received in Taki, and she never thought that she could see it on the face of the person she had budding feelings for.

The area around Naruto erupted into cheers and boos about the outcome of the contest, but he still 'focused' on Fu. "No! Nothing's wrong!" Well, besides the fact that he was shocked at her strength and afraid that she'd snap his spine like a pencil. He held out his own arms and immediately, like a sun re-emerging from behind a cloud, Fu's face was graced by a large smile. "Easy-easy, don't break me in two or anything."

"So that's what you're afraid of?" She hugged the Uzumaki easily enough; to his relief, the girl didn't feel like she had been eating metal as the basis of her diet. She still possessed her lithe form and still felt welcoming to the touch. "I'm not going to put you in the hospital…"

"Whew."

"… _On accident…"_ She whispered into his ear. It would have sounded seductive if it wasn't downright threatening first and foremost.

His sigh of relief had come too soon, but when he finally (reluctantly) pulled away. "What do you mean?" Realization dawned on him, making him sigh. "Oh, right. The Exams. I'd hate to have to fight you, Fu. I'd hate to fight anyone close to me."

Inside her mind, Fu cheered. 'Yatta!' She noticed what looked like an icy stare from Hinata. She mentally rolled her eyes when she realized what could have made the girl upset. 'Oh right. But they're not official, so, whatever. Right?' "Me too," she answered the boy's question. "But no holding back if we have to fight each other, right?"

"Right!" Naruto agreed. "I'm not taking any chances against a strength like **that**." The girl smirked playfully while flexing an arm in reprisal. Next, she held her arm for a fist-bump, which the boy (regretfully) returned. He kept his pain bottled up while grinning, but when he finally turned away from each other to turn back to their own teams, Naruto didn't notice that the Taki Kunoichi was making a face at Hinata while poking out her tongue.

The Hyuuga actually flipped her the bird before returning to Naruto. She wondered if she should reproach the Uzumaki, but she wondered 'how', 'why', and on what grounds. Were these girls all competing with her? She needed to make her claim on her crush. And drop a hint here and there that he should be more platonic with the others. That'd show them.

She absently wondered where everyone of their generation was. Were they the only ones taking the exams? The Hyuuga was tired of seeing so many forehead protectors advertising other villages-…'Wait. There they are!' She was about to go over and greet them, but Shino stopped her by placing his hand on her shoulder. "Hmm? Shino-kun? What's wrong?"

"Listen. It might not be best to approach them right now. Why, you ask? Someone informed them about our abilities, our statistics, achievements…even the morbid ones."

Now it was Hinata who wanted information. Or rather, answers. "What kind of information?" Shino used his head to gesture to Naruto who stood before them as the head of their trio, being stared at by the others have their generation. He wasn't daunted by what they had learnt, but the stares…the whispers…they were all eerily reminiscent of the ones the adults of the village usually sent his way. None, not one hailed a word of greeting to him, and what's worse, none were sent to Hinata either. Shino got the same reception. Then, ever so slowly, Naruto turned his back. That was all that he could do, just before the examination officials arrived via shunshins at the fore of the room.

 **=X=X=**

There were separate rooms used for hosting all of the jounins; although small, there was a room for each village for their respective jounins to watch the proceedings of the examination, via the monitors. There were four cameras in the four corners of the room, providing the televisions with a closed circuit feed. Every now and again, a jounin would be disappointed by the unforeseen event of their teams failing. But despite this, the remaining ones were somewhat entertained by the methods of cheating that their students employed.

"Hey…look at that sand kid. I think he formed some kind of eyeball on the ceiling to get a top-down view of everyone's papers," Asuma said in awe, somewhat intrigued. "Looks kinda practical."

"'Weird', you mean." Kurenai looked at the boy believed to be the instigator of the phenomenon. "Not to mention, he gives off this psychotic vibe. And does he even know how a bed feels?"

"He must be the jinchuriki for Suna. I've heard descriptions of him. He looks like the type." Asuma then turned to the silent Hatake. "Oi, Kakashi. What do you think?"

At first, the man did not answer. He continued looking at the Uzumaki who appeared to be reading over his test before he finally acknowledged the man. "Oh, right. He's the jinchuriki."

"I heard that your team encountered him in Suna. How'd it go?"

"Typical escort mission," Kakashi lied expertly, keeping in mind that he couldn't even tell his colleagues about the man he had bumbled into while they were in Sunagakure. "We left him alone, and he didn't bother us. Since sand was probably the kid's manipulation because of the Ichibi, it only made sense to let him be."

"So…simple escort mission?" Kurenai asked.

"Yeah, I guess so." Kakashi had a feeling where she was going with this, but she also checked with Asuma to ask him the same thing. When the man responded by saying that his escort to Taki carried out normally, the men waited on their colleague to enter her usual rant about the Uzumaki on her team complicating missions. But to their surprise, she didn't.

"Isn't this usually the time when you start…you know…cussing about how your missions keep getting difficult?" Asuma asked in jest.

"No. Not this time." Kurenai looked on at the blond member of her team who appeared to have started doing his exam. "I guess in hindsight, I'm kinda thankful that we went through such a horrible year as a team."

"Come again?" Asuma raised an eyebrow.

"You heard me. I think my team got the most experience, not to mention, grew up a lot. Myself included." Kurenai pointed at her students. "Shino, Hinata, and Naruto. You'd better watch them; they're going to show you their mettle."

"You fail to realize that I have Ino-Shika-Cho for a team. No one on Team 8 can outsmart Shikamaru," Asuma put in, thinking about his times (or to be more accurate, _losses_ ) when playing board games with the Nara. "He's got a mind like a steel trap."

"And Sasuke under my tutelage," Kakashi reminded. "I hammered out some of his personality kinks, and he's-"

"I doubt he'd have survived Wave. That is, Team 8's escort mission."

Kakashi repressed the urge to blab about the truth behind his escort mission in Suna, settling for throwing a simple jibe instead. "Well, Hinata did, didn't she? I guess it wasn't as bad as you've made it out to be."

"Well, before you start fighting with words like children," Asuma stepped in with an effort to diffuse the rising tension. "Let's just see which whose team dominates the exams."

"What if I want to make it interesting?" Kakashi hinted at making bets.

"I'd rather not," Kurenai looked away. "I couldn't comfortably take your money, knowing that you walked into a gamble you could never win. Besides, look at Sasuke." She gazed at the screen which was showing what Sasuke had written on his own test. "That's already proof that he's couldn't have made any good on the bet you wanted."

 **=X=X=**

The exam's proceeds were quiet. Every now and again, someone would get sent out of the room; it would only serve to cause the room's tension to rise and discourage those who knew they couldn't cheat (very) well without being noticed.

Not Sasuke.

He had long since realized that the exam's question incredibly difficult. He was no academic slouch, but the moment he looked at his paper, he knew he had a terrible chance of passing it, if any at all. Much like a ninja from the Hidden Rain who looked at his own paper twice at the questions, asked to be excused and never returned. Obviously, he wasn't coming back, as his teammates were informed to leave as well.

His line of thought was slipping. 'Naruto…those clothes and weapons-…He looks like the ninja we saw in Suna-…' He quickly ushered those thoughts to the backburner. "No…focus." He muttered. 'Hmm…Sakura might have the answers. Kiba…not a snowball's chance in hell. Wait…he's using Akamaru to look at other people's tests for answers before relaying them to him. He'll be fine. That just leaves me. Maybe I could use my sharingan…?' The idea made sense. 'I could just imitate the pen-strokes of someone who's writing confidently. But I have to keep my eyes forward and not to the sides of the examiners will see my dojutsu and fail me. I can't afford to fail here!'

Someone who was writing confidently? The pickings were already tiny enough as it were, let alone the fact that their answers could be wrong. Besides, the only person who was writing confidently was…

Uzumaki Naruto.

'Shit. I'm not copying from the dobe. Besides, he could be doodling a pile of crap on his test just to pass the time.' Sasuke had his standards, and he certainly wasn't about to consider his other options first; besides, how low could he be just by copying from what could be a legitimate idiot? He glanced aside to see if anyone else matched the requirements he had, but at that very moment, he knew that an examiner had seen his Sharingan; they briefly shared a look (a glancing instance, in fact,) and the examiner wrote a name quickly, obviously his.

'Damn. Guess the dead-last really might be my only option.' He stared intently at the still-working blond, before mimicking his pen-strokes. Soon enough, he was beginning to write in the answers for the fourth question, then the fifth, then the sixth. He was settling into the vibe, just following the boy's example. Finally, he looked down at his paper and saw that he had written responses to his latter question.

All of them, save for one.

 _Fuck off, Uchiha_.

Sasuke frowned deeply. He himself had clearly written it, large and bold. He looked up again at Naruto, only to receive a glare from said boy, who had silver and black in his eyes. They held gazes for a little longer, but it was at last when Sasuke became unnerved and looked away, badly disturbed.

There was something about his eyes. He had seen the lad's eyes before and thought them to be a sham, but now, he was convinced that he had a dojutsu. But was it the dojutsu that let Naruto know about the fact that he was being copied, or was it paranoia?

Sasuke considered how many similarities Naruto had to the man who had practically destroyed him in their confrontation in Suna. Coupled with the information he had learned from a ninja who was called Kabuto…

Unsurprisingly, this only made Sasuke despise the Uzumaki even more.

Then Ibiki announced that the test was over. "Alright! Pens down, and prepare for the final question-"

That was all the scarred jounin had time to say before the window behind him was smashed into pieces, glass shrapnel flying hither and yon. The cause, a someone wrapped in a cloth of impressive size was revealed when the textile unfurled into a banner that was hoisted from the ceiling. "What? Anko?"

His voice was muffled from where he was curtained behind the large banner that read: **Here comes the Second Test's Proctor: Anko Mitarashi!**

"Alright maggots! I'm Mitarashi Anko and I'll be your proctor for the second phase of the chunin exams! If you're done answering that poser 'tenth' question, let's get going to Training Ground 44!" The woman who was exposed from the banner yelled at the stunned occupants of the room. Besides sporting light brown eyes and what could be called a brunette violet pineapple for a hairstyle, she wore fitted mesh armor (that was somewhat racy) which was barely suppressed by a tan overcoat, coupled with a dark orange miniskirt. In fact, as Naruto (and **everyone else** ) looked over the woman, Naruto wondered if what she was wearing could be defined as clothing, as it was practically doing nothing to hide the fact that woman's body was nothing to be scoffed at. Well, if you weren't someone jealous, was his main thought, oblivious to the fact that the Hyuuga next to him was giving the woman a stink-eye, as well as other certain girls in the boy's life who was also with him in the exam room.

A bewildered silence and awkward stares were her only response.

"Wait…how the fuck did Ibiki pass so many of you?" The woman muttered, yet her mumbles carried through the room. "Damn geezer must be getting soft or something…"

A kunai tore through the top of the banner and carved its savage path straight to the bottom, effectively parting it in two, via which Ibiki stepped forward from the other side. "Goddamn it, Anko, you're too early." The man's tone was so frighteningly stern and reproachful that it made the woman visibly straighten.

"How early is…'too early?'" The woman asked in a childlike tone, already fearing repercussions.

"Early enough to nearly completely ruin the first test!" The interrogation's expert practically growled before he waved his hand at the room in a sweep. "You see them? Just over a hundred teams. Now…" The man shook his head while giving a 'tsk' of disappointment. "…Now, they're _your_ problem. Next time, get a fucking watch."

It was then that Ibiki walked to the nearest exit, but not without a simple beckon to his chunin subordinates; all filed out of the room, leaving the tokubetsu jounin in a room full of chunin hopefuls who were waiting to see what she would do next.

She needed no one else to tell her that she had really stepped into the cow-pie this time. "Aww, fuck."

 **=X=X=**

Hinata nearly lost her balance as she was jostled for room by other chunin-exam takers in the milling crowd. "This is awful."

"Yeah, you're right." Naruto looked at the forest, knowing that it was really called the 'Forest of Death' but still in disbelief as he swore that he could see a giant snake some distance off that nestled around the trunk and branches of one of the colossal trees. "Why the hell is a place like this a training ground? Training for jounins, maybe. But why would they use it on us? Are they trying to kill us off because we're so many?"

Shino tapped his shoulder and pointed at the woman who had informed them to be here. Said femme was practically in a state of panic activity as she bustled her assistants. "What do you mean, they're aren't enough waivers?! Well, I'll tell 'em to share. 'Sharing is caring' and all that bullshit, then! Besides, it'll take a whole team to sign the waiver so they can get in! If they don't all agree to sign it, it makes things easier for me!" She shouted down one assistant and turned to another. "You put those seals where I told you?"

"Yes, ma'am!" The rattled chunin answered shakily.

"And the cameras?"

"All working!"

This went for a bit longer before Naruto turned back to Shino. "I see. So I _was_ right. They **are** trying to kill us to get rid of us."

" **You think?"** The Kyuubi offered sarcastically. **"And by the way, look out for that fist."**

"What fist-" Was all he had time to say before said a mean right hook smashed him in the cheek and stretched him out on the ground. "Agh!" He was already leaping back unto his feet, only to stare an irate Tenten in the face. Everyone immediately backed up to give them room, but not too much so they wouldn't miss any details. "Tenten-chan? What was that for?!"

"Tenten? What's the meaning of this?"

The Higurashi's mean gaze snapped to Hinata. "Stay out of this." Without so much as even a second glance, she returned her attention to the befuddled (hurt) boy, who was presuming that his 'Reflex' didn't kick in because she hadn't hit him in an attempt to maim his face. But that didn't excuse the fact that his friend very nearly loosened his teeth.

"What the hell, Tenten-chan?!"

"Masato."

The mere drop of the word made Naruto blanch. But he still tried to play it off; to pretend that he didn't know what she meant. "…Um…who?"

"Exactly. You _planted_ Masato in the orphanage. He's your **clone**."

Inside his cage, Kurama's eyes widened slightly. **"Hmm…seems that the vixen caught on about the youki bunshin in the orphanage. I wonder if she knows about the one in the soup kitchen too? Guess that sensing ability of hers is going to let her know basically everything you want to keep hidden."** The biju let his mind wander as he thought about all of their histories and sighed. **"It seems that for everyone in your life, everyone's pasts and present and future fates will be intertwined,"** the tailed beast said sagely. **"Perhaps it's for the best that you tell her."**

Naruto considered the suggestion. It made sense; why dig his grave any deeper? "So what if he is? Is something wrong with that?"

"You could have stayed at the orphanage. You never had to leave me there, to let me feel like I was there by myself. Like I was dumped there by my caretaker." Her tone was low. "Wait…oh Kami…If it was so easy for you to plant a clone there to be the manager and behave as if he owned it…" Apprehension became clear all over her face as she took a step backwards from the boy, as if she was afraid. "Did _you_ **build** the orphanage…?"

"I…" She could look him in the eyes and see the answer that he was hesitant to say. _Yes._ Turning sharply, she walked away with nary a second glance, returning to her own team.

Before anyone else could do or say anything, Anko yelled down the antsy crowd to get their attention. "All right! Everyone shut the hell up!" The woman bellowed. "We're ready to begin the next phase of the exams! But before we begin, we'll be handing out waivers! One waiver per group! All three group members have to sign it if you want to continue!"

At different points in the crowd, chunins handed out sheaves of waivers to the exam-takers. Each group would take one and pass it down, signing it with pens that were likewise passed on by the chunin assistants. "Up ahead is the Forest of Death. For all of the denser people among you, from the name, you can tell that this isn't some cakewalk. You'll get wounded, maimed, crippled, or die. The last one is if you're lucky because the denizens of this forest can do much worse than just kill you, not to mention your rivals in the exams. So basically, we only need you to sell out all of your rights to bitch and moan if things doesn't go your way. Same thing goes for your respective villages."

This went on for a while; it was rather slow toil for everyone to be signing their names. With each minute that passed, unasked questions and tension filtered in and among Team Eight. By the time a wad of waivers had made it to a group next him, Naruto nerved himself to ask the teen currently signing his team's waiver to request for his. "Hey, could you pass the waivers to us next?"

"Sure." The answer was short, true, and Naruto was already on edge from the boy's tone. It wasn't for a false warning, as the boy dropped the still-unused flyers onto the ground. "Heh-heh. _Oops_."

Naruto pushed him aside, just before the same troublemaker made an attempt to step on the papers. "Well, watch where you step." He took up the sheaves quickly but before he could sign the papers, 'Reflex' sounded an alarm in his mind.

"Oh, yeah? Well watch out for this-" Before the boy's kunai could taste Naruto's flesh, Naruto cracked him over the wrist as hard as he could with his tactical baton; the breaking of the boy's hand was audible over the din of the crowd. The shrieks of pain that accompanied it, even more so.

The Rain nin's teammates didn't just stand around. They already had their (unusual) double-kunais at the ready to avenge their teammates' injury and pride. Naruto prepared to defend himself, but one of them got a tenketsu jab to their kunai arm, making the teen disarm himself. The other only got tripped up by a certain Aburama but was the worse off as he notched himself in the leg badly with his own double-kunai as he stumbled. Blood ran from the slit of clothes and skin that the blade had made.

The teen who had cast the first stone finally got his cries of pain under control. But before he could take further action against the blond, Anko was amongst the scruff, standing between the Rain ninjas and Team Eight. "What the hell's happening here?!"

"I saw the whole thing," a new voice said. A newcomer peeled himself from the crowd around them. He was clad in a colour that was mostly purplish (or magenta) but the thing that made him stand out the most was his sliver hair and his round spectacles. He did have a leaf hitai ate, but it was the first time that Naruto had ever seen him. Ever.

"Oh, is that so?" The woman asked half-sardonically.

"Oh yes." The teen seemed unaffected by her tone. "That one-…" He pointed at the first one, then the others in turn, "he broke his wrist while signing his own name. The second one dropped his own kunai on accident, and the last one cut himself after he tripped over his own feet. You know how Rain ninjas are…always showing off their handicapping kunai as if it's something to take pride in."

"That's a lie!" The first Rain nin spat. "The blond kid broke my wrist, then his teammates picked a fight with us!"

"Well, too bad." Anko already looked disinterested in his case. "You got any witnesses?"

There was a grand total of nil. No one stepped forward. The hapless ninja was about to continue, but Anko shushed him up, this time in her stern vibe.

"Well, no matter what happened, you already waived all of your rights to bitch about it. Either you decided to continue with the exams with one hand, a teammate who can't hold a kunai, and the other one," she looked at the one with the cut leg as blood trickled awkwardly from his mid to in-thighs, "who's seeing his time of the month…or you don't. Take your pick."

"What?! You're just taking their sides because you're all from the same village-!" Before he could say any more, Anko grabbed the boy by his shoulder and yanked him in closer to herself. What awaited him was a slow guillotine; the woman's kunai had already nicked through the fabric on his neck and already starting to cut into his neck.

The woman leaned in closer, until her mouth was next to his ear. "And supposing that I told you that I saw what really happened? What if I really were to step in to help them just because they're Leaf shinobi?" The whisper was completely unnerving; the boy could already tell what that the woman was threatening and he shook uncontrollably in his panic. "The only reason…the _only_ reason I'm letting you continue this part of the exams, is that my friends that live in the forest _**need**_ to be _**fed**_."

She dressed back from him while pushing him off. "Got that?"

The boy nodded, still unsure whether he wanted to continue or not, but was still badly rattled. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good." The woman then turned to the informer who had come to Team Eight's aid and asked him for his name.

"Kabuto."

"Kabuto, huh?" The woman asked to confirm. The boy nodded. "Alright. Kabuto…no one likes a tattletale." With that, the woman walked off back to her stage, the crowds parting for her to pass mostly out of fear rather than respect. But as Naruto watched her go, he realized that she preferred it that way. He turned back to Kabuto and thanked him.

"No problem. Us Leaf ninjas have to stick together, am I right?" He held out his hand, meaning that he wanted them to shake hands. Naruto grinned and obliged him.

"Yeah. Sure!"

With that, Kabuto made his leave; he was barely out of sight before Shino took him aside. "Naruto, you shouldn't trust him," the Aburame said lowly, not wanting his voice to carry to anyone else outside of their circle.

"Why not? Maybe an ally in the exam wouldn't be so bad-"

"Why? My kikaichu informed me that he's the one that told the others from our generation what we're capable of."

"What?" Naruto couldn't believe it. "That guy? That's why they were acting like that this morning?" He suddenly started to fret that Kabuto knew that he was a jinchuriki, then told the others. It would explain their reactions, he thought as Shino nodded in answer. "You think that he knows that I'm…well… _special_ in that _way_."

The kikaichu that I had planted on all of those that we knew since we entered the room told me that he informed them of mission statistics, abilities and…kills."

Naruto was horrified and Hinata was in the same boat. "You mean that he could have been reading reports? How could he get clearance to that?"

"I don't know, Hinata-chan." Naruto felt…older, all of a sudden. "Aww, geez." 'I wonder…no…They can't have my abilities on record. The closest thing that could come on record is that they have suspicion of my dojutsu. Well, I'm sure that Neji would have more than suspicions. Sasuke too, but he didn't look so much surprised as…angry. What's his beef with me, anyway?' He pushed all of those thoughts from his mind and returned his full attention back to his teammates. "Um…about what happened back there…"

"Naruto-kun, please pass the forms."

The boy looked down and saw that he still had the waivers. "Oh…right." He quickly passed the one for his team to Shino so he could sign it, while passing the waivers on to the team next to him. "But…thanks. You know, for helping. Even though I had it under control."

"We're your teammates. Of course we have to watch each other's backs. Because we have to, and because we want to. Even if you think that the others don't have you in the esteem you'd like, we still care. No matter what."

"I wouldn't phrase it like that," Shino stated.

"Feh…yeah. 'Strong and silent type', huh?" Naruto repressed the urge to laugh out loud. "You're right. Please all, and you'll please none. Best thing that we can do is to just kick ass and let history give us the mad props we deserve, am I right?"

"I wouldn't phrase it like that, either."

"…Shut up, Shino."

The Aburame had no problems doing that. He was getting unusually talkative, anyway.

"Did everyone sign the waivers?!" Anko yelled from her stage, getting everyone's attention again. "If you have, then group representatives can just line up and drop them off at this booth."

…

It took only a few minutes, as all they were doing were simply dropping off the waivers into a box. When Hinata returned, she voiced what was on her mind. "While I was in the line waiting, I read the waiver. Apparently, we all just signed our rights to sue."

"We know that, already-"

"I know that you know," Hinata interjected the blond. "Injuries, death of teammates, wounds. But it also mentioned…rape." She paled a bit. "That was odd."

"Rape? That's a frequent thing in these exams?" The Uzumaki couldn't believe it.

Before their criticisms could go any further, Anko spoke again, or rather, shouted. "Shut up and listen, you maggots! By now, you can all see that there's too fucking many of you. But that shouldn't matter," the woman looked as though she knew a secret and couldn't wait to tell it. "There's approximately one hundred and eight teams here. That should be…" There was a momentary pause here as Anko worked out the math.

"Three hundred and twenty-four." Naruto called.

Anko didn't look pissed that he had shown her up in something that should be simple arithmetic. Rather, she grinned widely. "Wrong answer. The correct answer is three hundred and twenty-four pussies. So because there're so many of you, I found a way to shave that number down to ten teams."

There was a rise of murmurs that answered the woman. Some were out of wonder as to the test that awaited them; others who were cross that the woman was had no qualms of insulting them.

"There are a dozen gates. Me thinks that nine teams will enter through each one and using this tracking seal-" She held up a copy of said seal for all to see. "You will find the seal that I like to call the 'Oddseal', and basically play 'keep-away' with it from the other teams; there are ten of them in mumber. Basically, you need to find the seal, keep it in your possession, as in _on your person_. The Oddseal will record your time having it in your possession and the top ten teams with the longest holding time get to progress in the exams. The others get to go home early."

"How do the tracking seals work?" Kiba asked from where he stood at the front.

"Basically like 'hot-and-cold'. It gets warmer when it gets closer to an Oddseal, and colder the farther you get from one. Of course, you could always just _look_ for the Oddseal, but if you don't have any special tracking talents, I wouldn't recommend that."

"Oh…" A Kumo kunoichi muttered. "Cool."

"Yes. Don't worry about mistaken identities and all that. We've got sealing experts who can tell from the chakra on the seals whether or not who had the seals, and if you actually kept it on you."

"You think that's true?" One chunin assistant whispered into the ear of another from where they stood apart from the crowd.

"Nah, man. We can only count the time a guy holds the seal. She's bluffing the rest. Besides, we've got cameras set up to see what they do." The other one whispered back.

"What if a guy gets greedy and gets more than one Oddseal? Is that okay?" A Suna ninja asked as he shifted what looked like a bundle of bandages on his back.

"Yes. The more, the merrier." Anko returned the answer with a level of pride in her voice. She felt a bit smug for improvising a test for so many people in a small space of time. Granted, they wouldn't be learning anything, but at least the test will thin out the best from the weakest. Besides, it'd always been test; survival of the fittest. "More seals, more time. Two seals double the time. Three seals are counted as triple. So on, and so forth."

"And what if it isn't even ten teams that even get a chance to look at an Oddseal?" The puppeteer continued. He sounded smug; confidence that his team could dominate that well? Naruto wasn't sure, but that Suna jinchuriki was one to watch out for.

"Well, the next exam ought to be even easier, then! This exam will last for five days but if you want to wuss out at any time, head straight to the tower in the middle of the forest if you're satisfied with your time, or just make your exit through the gates through which you will soon enter, the latter option if you're quitting the whole exams. Now then, my assistants will be directing you to the gates so you can enter-"

"FIVE DAYS?!" Chouji shouted. "What'll we eat?"

"Anything you find edible, or the poisonous plants if you want to kill yourself. Now _all of you get the fuck_ to your GATE!" Anko resisted the urge to face-palm herself as she watched them file away as they were led by the chunins. 'I need a dango break, real bad. The sooner they get in and start the test, the better.'

* * *

 **(1) – The scientific names are very out of place in their setting, timeline, culture etc. But please ignore it; he had to be a smart-ass in that moment, and will may be in future instances.**

 **That's scene.**

 **I've always wanted to toy with the idea of an Anko who comes in waaayyy too early during the final test, to make her botch the final question. It prevents Naruto from making (what I** _ **think**_ **is a) mistake to give people a backbone. Although I didn't pull it off in the humourous way I would've wanted, I did set the stage for something else:**

 **An 'Oddball' exam; not to mention, there's a** _ **lot**_ **of people.**

 **Anyone who plays Halo knows that it's a pain in the ass to play Oddball in a crowded match, when you're being targeted by everyone from every-which-way, even if it's multi-team match. While I consider myself a good enough player, I'm not bulletproof. That inspired the idea for these chunin exams; Oddballs, navigational points and whatnot. Trust me, this one was a bit hard to imagine and harder to make even slightly plausible, but it should make the next chapters easier.**

 **There's been decent character development in this chapter for Sasuke, a tiny reveal of one of Naruto's secrets (I don't think it was unexpected), and best of all, there should be some action next chapter. That's something to hope for; pray that my best will be good enough.**

 **Well, time for some exercise. I don't keep fit from sitting around a computer.**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	42. Chapter 42

**-Breaking Limits**

 **I'm back. Yeah, I'm surprised too.**

 **-Where the fuck were you?!-**

 **Um…other fandoms? I'm on Rotation, you know. Besides, the computer was a pain in the aft end for a whole month. Wouldn't let me sign in at the logon screen, had to friggin' re-install Windows twice. But I'm back! Just a bit of a warning… me thinks I accidentally cast a frenetic, confusing feeling of a Halo Oddball match into this chapter. Accidentally on purpose, I mean. Figure that one out, 'cause I can't.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

 **To** **YOU** **: MRAY's tired. But I hope you enjoy the chapter; I hope you all are. It's a part of my Universal Update, and suffice to say, it's a bit time intensive. Good thing I enjoy writing fanfiction, no? It's good to be back. In any case, leave a review on your thoughts, likes, peeves and whatnot.**

 **42.**

"I did realize."

"I think that Mitarashi-san should submit herself for a mental evaluation," Hinata grumbled.

"But you were aware that this was going to go to hell from the beginning," Naruto replied as he checked his tools. "Twenty-seven at each gate… we'll have to be at the top of our game if we even want a chance to get loose of our group to get to an Oddseal." As Naruto ruminated on his own words, he wondered if diplomacy might work. He raised his voice to talk to the eight other teams at the gate they were beginning with. "Um… hey… other villages' ninjas?! I've been thinking! You know that when the test starts, this starting position's going to turn into a shit-show! I'm thinking we just lay off the conflict until we're well into the forest! Sounds good?"

"You're just being a pussy about it." A redheaded kunoichi from Kumo yawned her riposte. "All because you're standing in the exact center of all the groups here."

"…" Naruto looked down as if he were noticing this fact for the first time, although he had grasped that from the beginning. "That's part of the reason, I admit… But if you haven't noticed, your team is right beside mine."

Her apparent teammate had a sweat-drop round down the back of his head. "Oh geez. Wait… if we couldn't realize this, then-…" Before he could continue, he heard the cracking of knuckles that promised head trauma. The redhead, satisfied that her unvoiced statement had a desired effect to shut her teammate up before he could ramble like an idiot, turned back to the Uzumaki. "So? We're not cowards like you."

"Nobody cares!" A nearby trio of Rain ninjas made themselves heard. "People are gonna die in this exam, we might as well get that part of the exam done with and out of the way!"

Meanwhile, Shino had been locked in a staring contest of sorts with the third of the Kumo squad. For her, she had thought that he was using his shades to stare at her breasts like so many others usually tried to, while in actuality, he was sizing her up….battle potential wise, no pun intended. Sword… chokuto, perhaps? Probable raiton affinity and…

Why was she staring at him like that? As if he were doing something wrong. Was he?

And since when did he start getting self-conscious?

That's how it began. One who virtually giving the other an icy-glare, and the other who was basically unwilling to break what was basically a contest of dominion for what its worth.

Then Shino did something he didn't normally do.

He briefly lowered his shades to reveal his eyes so that he could stare back into hers.

She flinched, and that was that.

Unknowingly missing this potential once-in-a-lifetime event, Naruto continued quarelling with a Rain nin. "Just five minutes, just five minutes into the match! It's going to last for five days, anyway, so is that too much to ask for? Five minutes for everyone to dig in! We enter peacefully, then we can just duke it out later-"

"I'm gonna kill you first, you dumbass!"

"He's got a point-" Someone else started to say, before Anko's voice sounded from the Intercom.

" _ **Hajime**_ _!"_

And Naruto was right. Everything went FUBAR once the announcer came on and the gates swung open. But had he known what it was like in other places, he would've been grateful that it wasn't a bloodbath where the Suna team was, two gates down. Although he could hear distant screams…

"Get to the gate!" Hinata yelled.

"Kinda occupied, here!" Naruto shouted back as he decided to cut out swinging with his tanto. "Damn!" He was sorely tempted to use his dojutsu, but he wanted to use that as a trump card for later. In fact, in this kind of scrum, he had to release his Gravity Seal from Five to a 'relaxing' Three, just so he could be able to dodge the attacks from every which way. Why hadn't he had just used a bunshin or a substitution, like his teammates? They had seemingly disappeared via these ways, while he had been practicing failed diplomacy.

The team that was right behind him was going to be the team to bulldoze over him, while the teams to his sides would box him in. What was Anko thinking?! Only three people side by side could enter the gates at the same time! Twenty-seven people at once? Unlikely.

Before he fell under the assault of shinobi, he had the sense to realize that his only objective was to get through the gate, not to start a free-for-all with his surrounding competition. Somewhat holding his tanto awkwardly, he went through the handseals for the **Daitoppa**. (Great Breakthrough)

It wasn't too powerful, but he had angled the jutsu downwards at the barren patches of the ground, raising biting dust and stinging gravel. As the ninjas expected the way he had wanted, he found that most of them, _had not_.

" **Kumo-Ryū: Omotegiri**!" (Cloud Style: Front Beheading)

With his 'Reflex' kicking in, his arm instinctively raised his tanto to defend his neck along with his other hand to support the blade, barely managing to stop a katana from liberating his head from his body. Although the attack had taken him by surprise, the identity of the attacker wasn't; it was the same Kumo redhead who had been ridiculing his suggestion.

"You have something against me in particular?" Naruto grunted as he pushed off her sword, already making a run to the gate. He was confident that he could lose her in the forest within a few seconds. "Bye!"

"Just thinning the competition!" She was already in pursuit, intent on taking him down or out with her sword. But just before she could perform another technique, the boy virtually disappeared from her view, and insects began to swarm her, nipping at her flesh and eating her chakra alike. The Uzumaki winced as he heard her screams as he practically flew through the gate. Just on the other side, he spotted Shino mutturing commands to his kikaichu, but it took him a while to spot Hinata, as she was using a camouflage genjutsu.

"Geez, where were you two? I thought you were all like 'hey, we got your back, Naruto' not even ten minutes ago!"

"We did." Was all Shino would say.

"Gomen, Naruto-kun," Hinata apologized. "I tried to use a genjutsu to make you appear invisible, but you broke it unintentionally when the fighting started."

The boy cocked his head to the side as he pondered her actions. "Well… we should communicate more. I didn't know you were going to do that. Hell, I didn't even know that you could do that…" He shrugged. "Well, uh, thanks for the assist at the end." 'Damn, we I can't communicate with my team like my clone brothers in my mind. We need to work better together. Maybe I should come clean with them on what I'm capable of, while they'd tell me what they can do. That's fair, right?'

" **You've held on to the secrets thus far, why shed them now?** "

'Kurama?'

" **And if tell the secrets, then they wouldn't have any more power, nor will they be secrets any longer. Furthermore, why discriminate who you inform? Tell everyone what you can do. Tell them that you're manifesting surreal abilities from a seal on your forehead? That you can react to dangerous situations on hard-wired instinct? That you cannot forget anything? Understand anything and everything? Retain focus? That you can plot hundreds of thousands of battle tactics with your dojutsu? See outlines of battle interests? While you're at it, tell them that you're trying to kill Ito-"**

"I get it!" Naruto growled at his tenant in his reply. "Damn!"

"Something wrong, Naruto-kun?"

The blond looked up, only now realizing that he had reacted out loud. "No… just yelling at my inner demon." He shook it off easily, before pointing behind him with a thumb. "Let's go. Hinata-chan? You've got the tracking seal and the special eyesight, right? Take us to the nearest Oddseal."

The Hyuuga nodded. "Hai!" She activated her byakugan promptly, while trying to decipher where the tracking seal would possibly take her. She believed that she could see one of the seals, just at the outskirts of her limits. She silently pointed in its direction, and Naruto was already forming a plan.

"We need some clones. About two for each of us."

"Naruto-kun, I'm only capable of the ordinary bunshins and Shino can only make his from his kikaichu."

Naruto smiled. "We don't need solid clones, Hinata-chan. We only need some distractions. And explosives. Big ones." He was already going to work, preparing traps with explosive seals. "I had an idea about how to throw off the others from our gate. Quick! Before they stop fighting with each other the back there and start getting focused on getting the Oddseals!" He beckoned to his teammates, and with a 'why not' shrug coming from both, proceeded to help him.

 **=X=X=**

Sasuke took off in the lead, Sakura and the Inuzuka pair just off to the sides. Sakura and Kiba were still panting, Sasuke even more so, with particularly good reason. The forest was burning behind him from his fireball techniques in their efforts to avoid the skirmish to get through the gates first, but despite the situation, Kiba could tell that the Uchiha was silent…even more so than the norm.

"Yo, Sasuke. You've got the handle on that **Gokakyu no jutsu** , right?"

No answer.

"You know, chakra exhaustion and all…" Kiba trailed off, trying to solicit a comment.

Still no response.

Kiba sighed. "What, you're still that pissed over what happened in Suna?" Sakura facepalmed herself and felt more than inclined to slap the Inuzuka upside the head. Why the hell did he have to start on that topic? Apparently, it was customary for the lad to try to beat his own record of idiocy.

"Kiba, don't be a baka!" Sakura mumbled in irritation. "Why'd you bring that up?"

"Because?" Kiba raised an eyebrow. "The guy's being 'I'm Uchiha Sasuke' to the tenth power. Can't he just take a break from that?" Akamaru yipped once in agreement, which slightly boosted the Inuzuka's ego, pertaining to his stance on the situation. "Yeah, Akamaru! I just don't think we're working well together, like how me and Akamaru would! Teamwork works!"

"The ninja in Suna was alone."

Sakura and Kiba looked up in surprise. Sasuke… did he just make a comment?

"The ninja in Suna was alone," he repeated, "yet he beat us. There was no teamwork for that, Kiba. And what's more, you two only stood and watched!"

"You know that we had to keep out of that fight!" Kiba retorted. "The guy was a jonin, and we were only genin! Did you really expect us to get involved?"

"What if he were out to kill you, would you have let him? Don't be an idiot, Kiba! You're just going to allow everyone to walk all over you-"

"Yeah, well I'm an Inuzuka!" Kiba reminded with a huff. "As much as I'd like to show what I'm capable of and assume leadership, I can recognize a pecking order and fall in line to authority."

Sasuke nearly laughed in contempt. "Guess that's one way to say that you'd keel over and beg. So far, I'm willing to admit that he was my better."

Kiba's ears pricked up in surprise. "Huh?" Did Sasuke just concede something?

"But one day," the raven-haired boy continued. "I'm going to kill him. Him and Naruto."

"Naruto?" Sakura's eyes widened. "Why'd you want to kill Naruto?" Sure, she (in the past), believed that the guy was an idiot. But since, especially during and after the events of their joint B-Ranked mission in Riyūsu Town, she had been thinking… a lot. Naruto… not an idiot. Big surprise. Super strong too, and not so bad-looking after all; puberty, go figure. And the biggest shock: might be a _dojutsu_ holder. She was still looking into that, not to mention trying to keep her ear to the ground to find out more about the ninja in Suna.

And now Sasuke's speaking of wanting to kill him?

"What the-… Naruto? Are you for real, man?!" Kiba couldn't believe his ears. "What do you have against _him_?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth. "We don't know him anymore. Naruto's been hiding secrets. Naruto beat Neji in taijutsu. Naruto's toting a dojutsu…" The Uchiha nearly lost it right then and there. "Haven't you even noticed that both the ninja from Suna that nearly killed us all is dressed like Naruto? I even realized that they both had batons."

They had noticed. They just thought it had been a coincidence.

"I'm sure Naruto knows who and where he is. I'm going to beat it out of him."

"Man…" Kiba started. "…That is fucked up. I'm not on board with that 'killing' thing. Look, I get that the guy beat me at taijutsu too…that sucks, but I'm willing to let that go. Fuck that," Kiba waved off the boy's rash sayings. "Let's just do the exams. Besides, if you really want to fight Naruto, that shit can wait 'till the second phase if we get through this one."

Sasuke was nothing if not determined. But he could hear reason. Naruto could wait until the second phase, true. But they had five days here in the forest. God help the Uzumaki should they cross paths. And he'd kill anyone who got in his way.

As they leapt away, Fu and her team silently watched the Leaf Team 7 pass. Orange eyes narrowed; the owner wondered how she should relay the news to the person it concerned the most. Shiri and Ana, her male teammates, merely rolled their eyes at the team's drama. "Geez, that's the 'warm' spirit that the Leaf ninjas have for one another?" Shiri asked mostly to himself. "I can only imagine how ninjas from different villages are going to treat each other if the self-villages are going to rip their own kin apart."

"We should follow them," Fu suggested quietly.

"Another stupid idea from our resident jinchuriki," Ana retorted. "Why the hell would we want to do that?"

Fu's eyebrow twitched as she resisted the thought of knocking some sense into her teammate. "The Uchiha has the sharingan, duh. He can probably spot the Oddseal without even trying. And his male squad-mate's an Inuzuka. He's basically like a dog when it comes to smelling things out."

"Won't he smell us then, or even the guy with the sharingan spotting us? And come to think of it," Ana narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "How'd you find all that out anyway?"

Fu decided that it'd be wise to avoid telling them about knowing a certain blond who told tales of his classmates. "I read a book about the Leaf clans," she lied. "The Sharingan isn't going to make him see in every direction. If we stay right behind them, he won't see us because we'll be in his blindspot. And as for the sense of smell, we'll just have to keep our finger crossed that we're always upwind, so that the Inuzuka and his dog doesn't smell us. It's either this, or we play a 'kiddie' game of 'Hot-n'-Cold' for the next five days."

Shiri and Ana glanced to each other; the choice was no contest. "Fine." Just before they set out, however, an explosion echoed from another corner of the forest briefly shaking the ground until all went still.

 **=X=X=**

Naruto grinned to himself as he dashed forward on the tree branches behind Hinata and Shino. "Guess that one was a bit overkill, huh?" Hinata didn't answer; she might have been thinking about the casualties, Naruto mused. "Hey, the explosion ought to throw off their perception of heat in their tracker seals. Anyway, Hinata-chan, do you see anyone else moving towards the Oddseal we're heading to?"

"Wouldn't that be _everyone_ , since that's the objective of the exercise?" Shino said matter-of-factly.

"There's ten of them, smart ass. Hmm, that might be a good name for you. 'Smart-ass-Shino'. Know-it-all." Naruto chuckled to himself as he looked all around him since he was bringing up the rear of the team.

Shino didn't even turn to look at him. "You haven't lost your childish sense of humour. Common sense, on the other hand…"

"Oh, boo." Naruto did a little thinking as he considered the nature of the exam. "Anyway, listen. I know that we don't have a leader amongst ourselves. Kinda helps group cohesion, you know. So we should entertain each others' ideas. Anyone have any?"

"To be frank, Naruto-kun, I was thinking that you would have one. The 'idea man'." Hinata smiled as she turned the thought over in her mind. 'The idea man.'

"Man with a plan," Shino agreed. "To be fair, I was only thinking of keeping the seal on our persons, then head towards the tower and stay close to it. Should the risks increase too much or if there's too much conflict, we would retreat into the tower to protect ourselves. Also, that would also remove that specific Oddseal from play to even slightly improve our chances of having a time being a tenth place or above."

"Sounds good." Naruto considered what Shino said. "That sounds like something we should actually try. But how the hell are we going to get the seal in the first place, and what should we do when we get it and keep it in our possession… and our lives intact? Did you see what happened back there? That Kumo chick was trying to kill me, even though I was looking out for everyone's best interests."

"Not everyone sees it like that, Naruto-kun," Hinata said quietly, her voice even lower than their light footsteps as they leapt through the trees. "Perhaps she saw you as a schemer."

"I am… kinda." Naruto admitted. "I was trying to get them to leave us alone."

"To do what?"

"Set up ambushes… with kage-bunshins. Wait… I guess that's one way to get something done-"

"Someone just got the Oddseal!" Hinata announced suddenly and urgently. "The one that we were going after!"

"What?!" Naruto couldn't believe it. "So fast?"

"We did lose time in setting up the traps to ensure that we would get a head start from the others we started with," Shino reminded in his monotone. "Besides, it'd be foolish to think that we could proceed through the exam and avoid any and all conflict."

Hinata merely nodded in agreement as she retained her focus on what was happening far out in front. "There are three… no… four… five… six…-"

"Six people?" Naruto raised his eyebrow. "That shouldn't be too much of a problem, right-"

"Teams." Hinata finished. A dejected Naruto's jaw slackened. "Six teams are there already, and one of is Tenten-san's team. Another is Team Ten."

"Ino-Shika-Cho?" Naruto worked it out in his head. "Well… crap. What the hell am I going to do about that?" He was tempted to use his dojutsu, but had no way of hiding it. Furthermore, he only wanted to use it as a last resort.

"Don't you mean 'what are _**we**_ to do'?" Hinata reminded. "We'll think of something."

"Sure. We should just do a snatch and run. But if worst comes to worst and we have to fight, I'll…" The Uzumaki wondered on what he should do. "Keep 'em busy while you guys run. Then I'll use the **Chika** **Hira** (Underground Projection) to get out. Seems safe. Hell, maybe substituting with a shadow clone…" Naruto continued, sounding ideas off of himself, more and more possibilities came to him as did the rising sounds of conflict up ahead of them. But as the old adage went, plans go up in smoke in the heat of conflict.

…

…

…

It was as if they were stepping into a war zone. Twelve ninjas were fighting each other all at once; explosions had pock-marked the ground, trees scarred by kunai and blood shed on the earth and the leaves. A few ninjas were dead and a few more were injured, yes, but they kept on fighting, as if having the Oddseal gave them some newfound purpose in life to live and kill everyone else.

Speaking of the Oddseal…

"Holy shit!" Naruto cursed silently. "That thing's even thicker and taller than the Scroll of Sealing!"

And there was no cord running through it to carry it like a bag. Guess that means that whoever had the Oddseal had only his legs to rely on. Guess all his plans on doing jutsus while with the scroll just went out the window, and anyone carrying the scroll would be hampered if they tried to run. Basically, they'd have to leave everyone as a casualty if they wanted the scroll.

"Screw planning!" Naruto felt his eyebrow twitch as his old mentality came creeping back into his psyche. "Plans aren't going to work. Beisdes, the longer we wait for them to kill each other, the more and more teams that'll come looking for this thing! There's over a hundred teams in the exams!"

"Wait-" Hinata started to say, but Naruto already jumped out of the tree, rolling as he hit ground and entering the fray. She suppressed the urge to face-palm herself. 'I'm in love with an impulsive knucklehead…' She smiled to herself; it was a small thing. "I suppose that part of him still hasn't changed. Let's go, Shino."

And so they followed Naruto to hell.

…

The blond finished his roll, already forming the cross handseal to create doppelgangers. " **Kage Bunshin no jutsu**!" Blowing up into existence in smoke, two shadow clones appeared at his sides; all three drew batons and tantos. "Get that Oddseal!"

"Hai!"

It's not as if the medley of ninjas didn't notice Team Eight. They noticed; they had all been keeping an eye out for newcomers, while fighting each other. Needless to say, the Rain ninjas, the Iwa Nins and even the Leaf nins weren't taking their interloping well. Three Iwa nins broke out of the general fight, merely forming the Bird handseal. " **Doton: Doryūsō**!" (Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears)

Immeadiately following, said roughly-made spears shifted apart from the ground and were sent haphazardly into the gathering of fighting ninjas. There were no deaths following, but an unfortunate Leaf Nin took a harsh cut through his leg, drawing heavily bleeding. As Tenten dodged the jutsu along with her team, she took notice of Naruto. She was about to call out to him, but remembered what had transpired a wee bit earlier. She was still angry; she let him know that by palming one of her shuriken seals and throwing the entire contents numbering two dozen. The Uzumaki's eyes widened when he saw them; if he hadn't dodged what he could and deflected the rest, he would've bought the farm. "Hey, are you trying to kill me?!"

She didn't reply, or rather, not with words. She started throwing even more; kunais, shuriken, even Kamas (sickles) and Shikoros (Saw Bladed Daggers) and Sais. "I guess that's a yes!" The boy had to draw his baton to help himself to deflect the weapons that he had blundered into while avoiding others. "So I had the orphanage built! What's wrong with that, huh? I wanted somewhere 'official' for you to live where you wouldn't be around a liability like me! Furthermore, the orphanage got village assistance so you could get the help you needed!"

"Oh?!" She hefted out a warhammer that she slammed into a nearby Rain ninja before doing a literal swinging hammer throw at him. His eyes widened as he got the hell out of dodge; the hammer left a sizeable crater where he had previously been. "You basically had me shipped out! And then you had the nerve to plant a clone there that pretended to be some kind of a father-figure-…"

"So what if I wasn't about to trust someone else with you!" Naruto ducked behind Chouji whilst Tenten switched focus to Shino who took her attention. "Excuse me, Chouji!" Naruto shouted as he deflected senbon that flew in from his side. "You're in the way!"

"What… Naruto-" The Akimichi started to say, but got distracted when he saw the scroll fall out of the grasp of an expired Rain nin, who had gotten stabbed in the back. "The Scroll!" Naruto's ears pricked up when he heard that, and was about to intercept the scroll too, but found himself unable to move, stuck firmly in place.

"The hell?!" The boy looked down and saw his shadow being an inky blackness that stretched and connected to Shikamaru who was a ways off. "Oh c'mon! Of all the people here, you just had to pick me?!" He tried to move his arm, but was barely successful in twitching it slightly.

"What a drag. I had to make sure that the most troublesome ninja doesn't make this clusterfuck even worse. Ino, you know what to do."

The girl who was high in a tree shivered slightly. "Are you joking? It's like you've forgotten what Kabuto said!"

"Kabuto?" Naruto's eyes narrowed. "What did he say?"

Shikamaru avoided the question. "Well, if you're afraid of using your technique, why don't you just knock him out? Just hurry up, 'cause Chouji needs help. He can't get to the scroll and escape by himself."

" **What** did he say?!" Naruto yelled again. Ino paid him no mind. She dropped out of the tree behind him and was about to cuff him unconscious. However, to Shikamaru's surprise, Ino was the one to black out and collapse. Moments later, Hinata wavered into existence from where she had been behind Ino and threw three kunais at the Nara, who was forced to drop his technique in order to dodge. Hardly had he finished avoiding the Hyuuga's thrown weapons did Naruto begin to move after him. Shikamaru had predicted such a move, as a Naruto tripped a wire trap that released kunais on paper bombs directly at himself, and he had to sink into the earth using the **Chika Hira**. The blast actually finished off an injured Rain ninja however, leaving only Teams Eight, Nine, Ten and Team Iwa, still in full and yet uninjured squads. Naruto's two clones were now trying to keep Neji and Tenten occupied, so that Shino and Hinata could go after the scroll.

That wasn't necessarily a good thing. Team Iwa in particular were now studying Naruto intently as he rose back out of the earth unscathed. Especially a brunette kunoichi in a maroon outfit with mesh armor. But rather than target him, she chose wisely in the moment and went after Chouji with her teammates, eager to capture the scroll before more ninjas showed up like moths to the flame.

As they made their move on Chouji, Rock Lee kept Naruto busy by swinging out punches and kicks as though they were free. Naruto cursed to himself as he tried to block a leg from braining him. 'The hell? That last one felt like iron!' "What's your deal?! I don't have the scroll!"

"That's not a very youthful thing to say, Naruto-san! Why avoid the challenge when you can conquer it?!"

"Don't you avoid trouble like normal people? And what the hell's wrong with your volume, huh? I'm right in front of you-" The boy had to dodge the boy's bandaged fist, before trying to crack his baton over the lad's head in an effort to knock him out, but Lee blocked it with his arm.

Naruto's telescope baton was never meant to bend. It was like a concrete nail. To be sturdy and precise. Unfortunately, Naruto never expected his baton to break; yet, it was broken cleanly in two in the middle at an extending link. Both teens stupidly looked down at the broken weapon on the ground, then back again at the handle in Naruto's fist.

"Shit..."

Lee looked back up. "I'm glad that it broke. Your first mistake was relying on a weapon that could break. I rely on only one weapon… that which is my own body. I have broken it many times and improved it many times like steel in a forge." Lee backpedaled a few feet and entered his strong fist. "You beat Neji in Taijutsu… allow me to show you my own youthfulness!"

Naruto stared back at Lee, still dumbstruck that his choice weapon had been broken. "Huh? What, you mean in Taijutsu?" Naruto had heard rumors about how this particular member of Team Nine trained, and Tenten's stories about him had given the Uzumaki nightmares. "Pass. _Huge_ pass."

But Lee would have none of it.

Naruto's eyes widened when he saw the boy disappear. If not for his Reflex, he wouldn't have been able to avoid the sweeping kick to his head. It was a good thing that his Reflex also made him leap away, as Lee had already followed begun by following through with another where his legs would've been if he had stayed. " **Konoha Senpū**!" (Leaf Whirlwind) Hardly had he finished following through was he already going after the Uzumaki; the blond quickly tried to execute a substitution. A mini-second later, Lee's fist smashed the log into splinters, broken pieces flying everywhere. "Naruto-san?"

"Naruto's not here!" The boy comically called out to Lee from where he was amongst the trees. "Call again tomorrow!" As expected, Lee took off after him, but unfortunately fell to the lure into a trap; an explosion blew the tree half to oblivion along with Naruto's kage bunshin, but Lee on the other hand…

"What the hell?" Naruto's jaw dropped from his vantage point in another tree. "Did he outrun an explosion? No one's that _fast_ , man!"

"Hey, Lee!" Tenten yelled while she was fighting an Iwa ninja. "Knock him around a few times for me!"

"Are you still mad about that, Tenten-chan?!" Naruto complained as he was forced to defend himself once more from Lee's assault. "What did you want me to do, huh?!"

"You could've been honest!"

Naruto decided that he should just lower his gravity seal from five to three, to at least unhinder himself enough to be able to fight with Lee and overpower him quickly. But it was with horror when he realized that he had already done so. And he was still having this much trouble? He was basically going by Reflex, and even that ability couldn't keep up with Lee completely. "Honesty? Oh, hey!" He shouted the already thick sarcasm. "I could use some help taking care of a catatonic girl! Where to go, huh? Run to the Hokage?! I still think-" He paused here to finally grab Lee's punch and threw him over his shoulder with all his might to the ground. "that I made the right choice!" He took off after the scroll where everyone else was fighting over, eager to just grab the scroll and run. He had taken into account that Lee wouldn't stay down, but to be honest… he thought he had more time. He had to lower his Gravity seal to Two; 'Finally! I can keep up with this guy's speed and strength! But is he training with a Gravity seal too? Weights, maybe?'

Then a bludgeoning kick from the boy's ankles smashed through Naruto's block and sent him flying into a tree trunk, nearly throwing his back out.

" **I'm going to say 'Training Weights'** , **"** Kurama put in. **"But have you noticed that he's only using Taijutsu? He's not even using chakra to augment his moves. You're looking rather pitiful right now, because that means he's probably even stronger with them off."**

"I noticed," Naruto grunted, before creating elemental clones.

…

With more annoyance than anger, Neji destroyed Naruto's Kage Bunshin before it could execute a **Daibakuha** (Great Explosion) and turned to Tenten, who was just finishing hers, giving her a simple order. "Get the scroll."

The Higurashi nodded, before she ran off to where most of the others were. She took note of the fact that Naruto was having less than a great time in his square-off with Lee. It was the vindictive side of her; this time, though, she was sure that she was in the right. She didn't have to think that she was being left alone in the orphanage.

And what was in that act all those years ago, huh? Let the sickly Asami have the last space in the orphanage instead of Naruto himself? He practically had a house built, and he basically gave out all the rooms for strangers to use?! Logic? Zero!

All those years of looking up to Masato like a father figure… that was also Naruto, for Kami's sakes! No wonder she was wondering in what respect she had feelings for the blond, be it even fatherly and brotherly and romantically. No wonder she was so fucked up in the head and confused in the heart.

She had to bring herself back to the present. What was going on?

There was the Oddseal that they were all fighting over. Chouji, Shikamaru, Shino and Hinata were involved in an inter-team brawl along with Team Iwa. How could she get to the scroll without getting scored an injury or worse?

She started running a loop of exploding tags through a kunai and got ready to throw it.

Now… where would be the best place to plant the explosives?

…

Shino had to keep moving in order to avoid the Nara's shadow techniques. "I may not be as smart as you, but I do have another advantage."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

"What advantage, you ask? I've grown into other ninja arts besides my clan techniques, unlike the members of your team." That was all that he could say, before the Aburame blundered into a roundabout shadow from a nearby tree, baited into the Nara's **Kagemane no jutsu.** (Shadow Imitation technique). Without wasting time, Chouji partially expanded his other arm (the first expanded arm was carrying the scroll) and swatted Shino as if he were nothing more than an insect. Although ironically, he was. Or to be more specific, _many_ insects.

Instead of slapping the Aburame's limp body away however, Shino, on a whole, disintergrated into a swarm of insects which began leeching Chouji of his chakra. While there was a lot of chakra for them to work through, Chouji dropped the scroll and began beating at the insects with his now free hand in an effort to kill them. It was woefully inadequate; his hand was too large for the insects that were far too small.

In his distraction, he had forgotten to pay attention to Hinata, who promptly disabled the tenketsu in his legs. The Goliath of a genin collapsed backwards, leaving his large impression to show that he had fallen heavily. Upon seeing that two of his teammates were incapacitated, the Nara retreated a ways off using a substitution, throwing kunais the whole time to keep the two members of Team eight occupied, which they dodged easily enough but were still kept on their toes.

Despite this, Team Iwa finally captured the scroll… sort of. One of the burlier looking males grabbed it and started hefting it away in escape. He failed spectacularly; Neji was upon him quickly, and sealed his tenketsu even quicker. In reprisal, the sole kunoichi of the Iwa team created even more spears of stone that shot out of the ground at the long-haired Hyuuga. He deftly avoided them without even turning and it was only when he turned to face her that she realized that he was a Hyuuga, Byakugan blazing. Neji wasn't fast; he was quick and superbly agile as he dodged her repeated attempts to skewer him. Kurotsuchi was about to try to perform a small genjutsu to throw him off as was her practice, but in her hesitation, he caught up to her and began rapidly sealing her tenketsu. Before he could do any serious damage, she kicked him off and before he could recover, she attempted one of her trumps, although it was flawed because of her chakra's partial sealing.

" **Yōton: Sekkaigyō no Jutsu**!" (Lava Release: Quicklime Congealing Technique)

She spewed the quick-action cement-like substance over the hapless Hyuuga; realizing that it would harden on his person should it be allowed to dry, flared his chakra and eased into a rotation to rid himself of the stuff off of himself. Hardly was he finished, was he pulled beneath the ground up to his neck by the last Iwa squad-mate. Rising back up again out of the earth, the teen rested his kunai to Neji's neck.

That marked a turning point in the medley.

"Checkmate," the Iwa nin growled as he pressed the kunai against Neji's neck. Before he could slash it, he heard Kurotsuchi curse under her breath. Hearing that, he angled his head to look at her, only to see the bun-haired weapon's mistress with a kunai at Kurotsuchi's neck and her free hand in a handseal.

"Not today!" Tenten grunted. "Drop the kunai, or I'll open up her neck!"

Actually distracted by the predicament his teammates were in, Lee took his eyes off of Naruto, pausing his relentless assault. The Uzumaki capitalized on that by drawing his tanto and slashed at the taijutsu user wildly, drawing a deep cut across his chest. Lee weathered through it, however, and smashed his fist into Naruto's gut and corkscrewed it, sending him flying in a spin into the tree, making the blond black out briefly. But before he could come to, Lee came to stand before him, his fist cocked back. "Holy… shit…" Naruto gurgled, before coughing up blood. "Kami didn't build you like everyone else, huh?"

Before Lee could strike, the boy's arm fell to his kunai holster and withdrew one of the ninja knives, angling it stab the Uzumaki. "What manner of un-youthfulness is this? What is wrong with me?" Lee complained in worry. Naruto glanced down at the boy's feet, only to see a long black shadow weaving amongst the stray kunais on the ground, making it's way back to the darker regions of the forest. "Wait… Shikamaru? What the fuck are you doing, man?!"

"Defending my teammates," Shikamaru called out. "Take a look at Shino and Hinata."

Weakly obliging, Naruto averted his eyes, trying to look for his teammates. He eventually spotted Hinata more-or-less hefting the large scroll to leave with it and Shino…basically using and Chouji as food to feed his kikaichu. "Shino!" Naruto yelled. "Quit it! You're pissing off Shikamaru!"

"I need my teammate healthy for the rest of our stay in this troublesome place. If he doesn't stop, the guy meant to carry the scroll is going get stabbed in the arms…then I follow through with the rest of his body. Simple tit for tat," Shikamaru called from where he was hidden. "One strongman for another."

"Are you serious?!" Naruto's eyes widened in disbelief. "I wouldn't kill any of you guys!"

"You're willing to kill others," the Nara replied in a caustic tone. "I'm willing to kill to protect my friends."

"Aren't we friends?!" Naruto shouted in worry. Shikamaru didn't answer him.

"This is most un-youthful! I'm uncomfortable with killing!" Lee shouted as he tried to regain control of his body, but failed miserably.

"You're the triggerman!" Shikamaru called. "Or knife-man… too troublesome figuring out which is which."

It appeared that Hinata, at first, would've been the only one not directly involved in the scrum and would've had her objective in hand. But before she could do anything, Tenten yelled to her, "You stop right there, princess! I've got five paper-bombs tagged on that scroll with a kunai. If Neji dies or if Lee kills Naruto, I'm blowing it to shit! Then all of this would've been for nothing!"

Well, this was interesting. Apparently everyone was getting poked with the wrong end of the shit-stick.

-Neji was 95% buried with a knife at his throat.  
-Kurotsuchi's tenketsu was partially sealed, neutralizing her ability to flawlessly execute substitution to escape the knife at her neck.  
-The last Iwa nin was out of commission; completely unconscious and his chakra sealed. He wouldn't be up and fighting anytime soon.  
-Naruto was injured, and about to get crucified by a (controlled) Rock Lee, which was done by a pissed off Nara.  
-Shino was using Chouji like a gas station, fueling his insects for the conflicts ahead.  
-Hinata was more or less holding a bomb that could and would blow her up into crimson paint.

Desperate, Naruto finally activated his dojutsu and analyzed the situation. Wondering about the risks a little more, he made his decision. "Hinata-chan! Throw the scroll to Tenten! Shino, save Neji!"

"What?" She threw him a look that questioned his sanity. "Why-"

"Do it!"

Abandoning their own reasoning, Shino sent his insatiable swarms after the Iwa ninja, driving him away from Neji, while Hinata tried to swing the scroll over to where Tenten was. Giving herself another reason to fight someone else, she took off after Shikamaru, who had to cut his control over his jutsu to escape her wrath…hurt Naruto-kun…?! Not a chance of letting that slide.

The Oddseal with the bomb rooted in it by a kunai rolled towards Tenten, coming to a stop before her. She had lost her purpose to threaten the Iwa ninja to keep him from killing Neji, but she had dug her own grave by having her own bomb in her own proximity. Nevertheless, she had nothing to worry about so long as she didn't flare her chakra with her handseal to activate it.

But the ninja that was trying to kill Neji was now targeting her. She had to release Kurotsuchi; while the Iwagakure ninjas kept her engaged, Naruto sighed in relief. But he wasn't out of the woods yet. Lee just about had rhinos for fists, and before he could knock him out, Naruto did one last substitution, despite his body's protests. 'Kurama! I need some healing here!'

" **This isn't some kind of miracle instant-healing service, brat! It takes time!"**

Before he could rant at the beast about what he thought about that, Naruto had to duck the fist that would've brained him. Tactics refreshing his mind, he sidestepped Lee's straight punch and grabbed the back of his head. Adding his own momentum to Lee's, he slammed Lee's forehead directly into the ground below. Lee beared through it, however, and turned it into a front flip that gave Naruto a kick to his shoulder, slamming the Uzumaki with the weights hidden his leg-warmers. Naruto rolled with the blow backwards, before falling to his knees, spewing up blood again. His gut still hurt him terribly, and it was costing him too much to expend a lot of effort.

Pity… he thought his close range combat skills were top notch. Lee was humbling him. And he _still_ had his weights on!

Trying to control his chakra, he created two kage bunshins who intercepted Lee. It was risky business, but Lee always followed through with his sweeping attacks to keep momentum, but used straight punches to stop himself from continuing a continued assault. But what good would that be since Lee always tried to destroy everything he touched?

Naruto snapped his fingers, and the clones exploded as soon Lee struck them. 'Let see him outrun that!'

The white explosion eveloped the taijutsu user completely. Sailing out of the smoke by the force of the bomb, he flew across the clearing and finally landing, his body rolling multiple times before coming to a stop. After he stayed like that for a while, Naruto was beginning to believe that the spandex-wearer was down and out. However, after a groan that sounded suspiciously like he was saying that he wasn't giving up, Lee was standing again.

No one knew what happens when an irresistible force met an immovable object. But what happened when two irresistible forces met each other?

"Yep, he's not normal. I can't outmuscle this guy. I need to capitalize on some weakness of his, or outsmart him!" Naruto mused under his breath when he saw Lee running towards him again. "Think…"

It was then at that moment that a new battle tactic came to him as he analyzed the situation. "Heh heh. That's it! It's as easy as one-two-three!" Forming three handseals, he created a single raiton bunshin, then another set of handeals created one of water. 'Get ready!'

'Hai!' Taking their affirmatives as confidence, he prepared gave them their orders. "Soak him!"

The water clone did his jutsu first: " **Suiton: Mizu Kasukēdo**!" (Water Release: Water Cascade) The wave of water, while drenching him, did nothing to stop Lee's swift advance across the clearing towards them through the wet, but Naruto grinned vindictively when he saw that Lee had no intention of stopping. "Wait… wait… wait until he's a little closer…" The raiton bunshin went through handseals, belayed on the final one, waiting for his creator's orders. "That's it! Shock and awe!"

" **Raiton: Jibashi**!" (Lightening Release: Electromagnetic Murder)

The electric technique raced along the water path the earlier jutsu had caused and caught up to Lee; he couldn't outrun that which was far swifter than him. The current arced to his conductive metallic leg-weights, before racing through his body.

"Arrrggh!" Lee screamed as the electricity did its purpose, before he collapsed where he was, voltage still apparent as it danced on his flesh and frazzled his bowl-cut hair. Naruto finally allowed himself a sigh of relief. He knew that the electricity would severely inhibit Lee, causing paralysis and unconsciousness. That was good enough.

"Damn! Now for the Oddseal!" He turned and started heading after the seal, but was alarmed when Hinata raised a cry from the trees where she was fighting Shikamaru.

"He's getting back up, Naruto-kun!"

Already reacting, he turned to face Rock Lee, but was a bit surprised to see that the teen was unmoving. "Hmm? Is he even conscious?" Naruto asked himself, wondering what his next move was. He soon, in spite of this, returned his attention to the large scroll. He hadn't forgotten his earlier plans (or rather _goals,_ as it were), to get to the Oddseal. Already allowing his dojutsu to deactivate to preserve it in what little secrecy it still had, the boy and his clones took off after the objective. He knew that Tenten still had her 'insurance' still on the damned thing, but that was the least. He took out his kunai and stripped off the explosive tag while his two bunshins helped Hinata to drive Shikamaru further and further away. Naruto didn't respect the boy's battlefield strategies as much as he knew he should, but he was still a dangerous liability to have around. It was positively scary seeing the Nara actually willing to whatever means neccesarry to protect his teammates; in that regard, Naruto believed that he was the same. But had the news of his accomplishments really changed the views of his former classmates on him? Did they see him as some kind of huge statue that had to be brought down to their level or lower? Or even worse, _believed_ that he should be?

Naruto clenched his fists tightly. If what Shikamaru was willing to do was the same emotion mirrored by everyone of his graduating class, then all he had here was his own team….and how long would that last until they were forced to fight each other?

He had to forget about friends… forget about the girls… forget about his team. He'd work with them for now, but he'd better be ready to bloody his hands soon. While he wasn't willing to kill those close to him, he had better be ready to cut loose; who knows whether or not they were thinking the same?

Shino, his teammate, was in this exam. Fu-chan was in this exam. So was Hinata-chan and Tenten-chan. His mind swirled as he thought of the last. Tenten had threatened Hinata by declaring that she would destroy the Oddseal and the Hyuuga girl along with it. Had they all degenerated into savages? In his episode, he glimpsed his broken baton, all on its lonesome. Perhaps it was a sign that it had been rend asunder; it had come to pass to symbolize that he might need to become more forceful, more final when it came to his confrontations. Things were going to come to head soon, and it was with horror that he realized that he was not strong enough. His Taijutsu… weak. His Ninjutsu… repetitive and substandard. All he had were ideas and plans and tactics with his dojutsu but no power to really back it. Smarts went a long way, but brawn helped in heaps too. Rock Lee was practically like dumb muscle, and look how far it got him. What if Lee'd had ninjutsu as well? The Uzumaki realized that he could've been cone for.

Naruto got up and approached his tanto, taking it up and grasping it securely. He could change.

There were a few remaining. Hinata and his two clones had driven off Shikamaru to a safe enough distance. Shino was disabling the last male Iwa shinobi and Kurotsuchi was taking on Tenten at close proximity with two kunais, effectively neutralizing the girl's wishes of throwing her weapons.

Readying himself to use a body flicker, he took off after Tenten and Kurotsuchi; both were determined kunoichis who would never allow him to leave with the scroll. They had to be taken down or out. It was a bit harsh, but he found it hard to stop himself once he started his blitz. Disappearing and reappearing, he found himself behind Tenten right in her blindspot. Somehow, she sensed him or _saw_ him coming and acting, and deftly angled her head aside to dodge a cuff that would've knocked her out. But not willing to be outdone, he dropped and sweep-kicked her legs quickly from beneath her and she found herself between heaven and earth; an elbow later smashed her down even faster.

Hardly had he done Tenten in had he weaved around her prone form, advancing on Kurotsuchi. A brief play of blades was all it took before Naruto's tanto left a trail of red on her arms, making her drop her first kunai. With a savage slash downwards with his weapon in a reverse-grip, he put enough force behind it to knock the second kunai out of the Iwa nin's hand. Already fearing for her life, she tried to step back but it was futile; in a last ditch effort to literally save her own neck, she stopped his last hack from slicing through it, but at the expense of her hand, using it to catch the blade. She couldn't stand much more of the abusive blade; Kurotsuchi lashed out a kick at his groin to get him to back away from her.

"Damn Namikaze!" The girl bit out nastily as he backpedaled. She pressed on the advantage and flicked the blood from her cut palm into his eyes, temporarily blinding him. While the foreign liquid stung at his eyes, she grabbed the last kunai from her holster and lunged forward with it, but the hapless kunoichi would and could never have expected him to actually deflect it (while blinded) by batting it aside with a backhand swing, before dealing a fist to her exposed side. As she flinched, the last thing she knew was the boy smashing the base of the handle against her temple, knocking her unconscious.

It was over.

Naruto flicked the blood off of his tanto before dropping it into its scabbard on his back, while running his free arm across his eyes in an effort to alleviate the sting of the blood. "There was nothing positive about that…maybe negative…" Naruto chuckled at his lame joke about the blood. "Damn! And what was all that drama about calling me 'Namikaze'? Sheesh." He was about to walk away, but he heard the sound of retching behind him. It was Tenten; she was dry-heaving on her knees after he had struck at her gut in one of his harshest ways. "You all right?"

The bun haired girl glared at him, or at least as best she could. "What do you care? You're the one who elbowed me!"

"Would you have let me and my team just walk away with the Oddseal?"

No answer.

"I thought not. At least you got it better than this Iwa girl here," the Uzumaki nodded towards Kurotsuchi who was on the ground, her prostrate form limp. "I used only Taijutsu on you. Not to mention, you set Rock Lee on me. That guy could wreck a building with his bare hands alone. Maybe he busted a rib of mine, or even more."

"Why'd you do it?" She mumbled. She was very vague with her question, but he knew exactly what she was talking about. Nevertheless, he wasn't going to say anything unless she asked the question she needed to get off of her chest. Call it a… psychological tactic he had picked up from his massive knowledge intake.

"Do what?"

"I'd finally… admitted my feelings. But you dumped me in an orphanage. As if you couldn't be bothered. Village care, huh? Was I that much of a burden?"

"Well, what did I know about taking care of a catatonic girl?" He answered rhetorically. "I didn't mind, and I did the best I could. You never had to worry about any land-hunters coming to find you. But I finally realized that times were changing. The village's economy was getting better, and that meant that my few dollars weren't going to mean as much as it used to. I called in a favor and got the orphanage built. What's more, I didn't trust anyone else but myself to look after you, so I did what I do best. I made a clone. Don't you like Masato?"

"I look up to Masato like a father!" Tenten shouted. "A father figure, and it was basically _**you**_ the whole time! That's fucked up!"

"Then what's next?" Naruto asked softly. "You're gonna move out of the orphanage or something? You can't stand Masato or something just because he's a clone of me in disguise?"

"Yes. I will."

Well, shit. He hadn't expected that. "Fine. I wish you the best, Tenten-chan."

She didn't answer.

With a sign of resignation, he turned and walked away from the girl on her knees, approaching the bulky Oddseal and picking it up. 'Damn! This thing is…well, it's actually pretty light…or is it because of my Gravity Seal's at level two? Or is this thing making me stronger…?' He grasped one end and swung it around a few times, wondering if he could bash someone with it if he performed correctly. 'It's a lot lighter than it looks. And… it's like it's draining a little of my chakra ever so slightly. Must be how it's going to be used in the end to show the length of time it was held.' He settled for carrying the thing under his armpit while he hailed the final two members. "Shino! Hinata-chan! Time to go, before more ninjas show up!"

Shino soon appeared from the trees where he had incapacitated the final Iwa shinobi, and Hinata reappeared not much longer after that with his two elemental bunshins. "Done?"

"They're done." Naruto replied. "We should get going to the tower and hold our own close by to it." He didn't miss seeing Hinata look towards Tenten worriedly. "She's fine. I held back."

The Hyuuga narrowed her eyes at this. "You're not the 'dominator' type, are you?"

"Is that a sexual innuendo?" Naruto asked, bewildered. He had never, **ever** , expected any manner of perversion on her part. "'Cause I'm not exactly going to be submissive to anyone I know in this exam."

"Just making sure. It's good to know your partner…" She trailed off suggestively.

"I've got statistics in my head about how many relationships actually make it to marriage, and how many after that end in divorce or spouse murder."

"So?"

"Let's break that statistic for the better," Naruto finished. "But that's going to wait until after the exam. However long that's going to take. Five days, right? How long has it been already?"

Shino shrugged. "About an hour." At this, Naruto's heart fell. After his near demise at the gate, their travels, their fights, his assault from Lee…his aches that hadn't even begun to numb…?!

"Well, that's just freakin' fantastic!" Naruto groaned. "One hour down, one hundred and nineteen more to go. Kami help us."

 **Good place to end it, if you ask me.**

 **-Well, the first part is supposed to represent the battlechatter from players in a game, when a match is starting. You know, from the people who have microphones. Some people argue tactics, some make trolling sounds and the others just banter. The second half of that was supposed to represent crappy spawning. I mean, no one likes a spawn-trap! Not cool, game devs! Give us more breathing room when we spawn!**

 **-The last part was supposed to represent the frenzy when a bunch of people are close to the Oddball. Some people try to take out the competition first, some grab the Oddball and try to run, other people take it and try to fight with it. I hope I wrote out the fight scenes depicting that. I also made the Oddseal in this to be BIG, because the having the Oddball in Halo is a huge handicap. You can't shoot with it, just bludgeon people when they're extra close to you. I think I can give myself some points for accuracy and effort. By making the Oddseal huge, it neutralizes their ability to do ninjutsu (which would have been shooting in Halo), and Taijutsu. But on a fair point, I made Naruto believe that the Oddseal might be strengthening him in some aspects. I'll address that briefly next time.**

 **-I did some fleshing-out of Naruto's character today. I need him to be stronger ninjutsu wise and emotionally mature by the time the climax hits. I also made it clear that I'm going to have to start serious shipping soon, but I really don't wanna rush it. I don't want to feel pressured to write a lot of fluffy romance all at once just because romance fiction is the leading attraction of this website.**

 **Oh well. Let me know if you what you think.**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


	43. Chapter 43

**Breaking Limits**

 **Well… I better post this before y'all start throwing rocks… or molotovs.**

 **Now presenting… '** _ **War and Peace'**_ **by MRAY 4TW. Well, it's starting to feel like it, anyway. Damn, I wasn't aiming for this word count when I first started out! I should've been done by now. Damned daily responsibilities...**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Just writing a fic as a hobby.**

 **43.**

Anko walked past some of the chunins who were monitoring the video feeds from all the many hidden cameras in the forest. Mumbling a word of greeting, she nearly did a double-take when she realized that quite a few of her chunin assistants were crowded around only **one** of said screens, chattering excitedly. "Oi! Since when does it take five guys to watch only one monitor, huh? Get back to your stations! I don't want any of you missing any cheaters trying to get smart with the OddSeals."

"Sorry, ma'am!" Came the general reply. All returned but one; he remained as an extra audience by standing behind the seated chunin at his station, clearly engrossed in the video feed. Anko was about to _re_ - _educate_ him about what happened to disobedient subordinates before she herself glimpsed what they were watching.

"Who's that? The Uzumaki brat?"

The disobedient chunin, frightened as he had assumed that she had already moved on, hurried to explain in an effort to absolve his guilt. "Errm... Hai! Forgive me, but his own bouts were too interesting-"

"Move over!" The woman yelled as she nearly outright pushed him out of the way. "Damn! Is this one of those cameras that come with audio? This must be what a mini-ninja war looks and sounds like!" Seeing her take part in his own crime, the chunin sighed in relief. At the very worst, he could always claim that he was following her example. Backing off slowly, the chunin left the Mitarashi's company before heading to the door. Trying his best not to be _too_ inconspicuous, he exited through and closed the door behind him, walking on his lonesome in the corridor.

'Hmm… it seems that the Yondaime's son is rather stagnant. He couldn't even beat a genin properly. Granted, that spandex wearer's probably one of Maito's kids. Knowing him, he almost certainly put that boy through a harsh taijutsu training regimen. But even by inheriting Minato's talents, an opponent like that shouldn't have given him so much trouble.' The chunin decided that something had most certainly gone wrong, but couldn't quite place it. 'Did I overestimate the brat? I'm sure that I saw the dojutsu in his eyes… That means that he already has at least five or six of the **Eight.** Imagine…' The chunin's eyes narrowed in anger. 'The brat has the most powerful latent abilities ever to be artificially produced. There's no use in besting him if he hasn't reached his potential, or if he hasn't yet manifested all of them. Furthermore, there's no chance or reason to try assimilating the abilities if they're not all present. Naruto… is an utter waste! A waste of time, a waste of an investment… and he's a waste of Minato's life. That Namikaze threw away his life just so that this disappointment could _live_? What the hell was he thinking?!'

The chunin remained calm on the outside, his internal emotions may as well have been covered with a rubber mask. His steps could have been compared to a clock's ticking; monotonous, seemingly creating just enough noise to let anyone know that someone was walking along the hallways but not enough to attract attention to those who had no care or interest. His destination was the exit, those double doors which were just ahead, and after that… he himself had no idea. Not only in the literal sense but more existential in the ways of his nomadic routines and his very life's choices. He had no idea where to go, what to do, who to turn to. Hell, he didn't even know what to have for his next meal. It wasn't confusion, he was merely indecisive; however, in the way things stood, there wasn't much of a difference.

And then there were those fucking voices in his head! Can't they KEEP _QUIET_?!

Sure, some were mellow like Uchiha Itachi. Kisame was fine as well. Others were annoying, like the Suna chunin he'd killed. Hidan, however…

That ninja was NOT worth his regenerative abilities. What's more, the rogue ninja's facility still did not aid his most pressing issue. He needed chakra. Lot's of it. Not to be able to heal from some injury that he was unlikely to get in the first place. Chakra… just chakra.

The abilities from each ninja were merely perks and a small form of redress for his most pressing issue.

'I must keep my sanity! I must keep my mind, it's all I have left!' His anger became absolute due to the lack of an outlook to any other. 'Damn, that snake. He'd better be able to deliver. I need that seal!' The chunin yelled in his mind. 'I hoped! Naruto was going to be the initial cure, and if he's failing, that Orochimaru is the only one I can rely on! I'm running out of options! **OPTIONS**!'

It was then that he felt cold steel on his neck.

"Have a place you need to be?" A voice whispered into his ear. The sultry tone spoke nothing easy and only served to accentuate the threat of having his throat cut from ear to ear.

The chunin grimaced, yet made no attempt to move. He wasn't afraid of the woman; by all means, if she knew who he was, she'd be afraid of _him_. However, he had to ask. "What gave it away?"

If it weren't for the situation, Anko would have snorted. "Feh. We were at seating capacity, but all the chairs were already occupied. Basically, we had an extra unwanted person. Not to mention the fact that you have to be the most nondescript person I know." The kunai pressed into his jugular, just enough to cut the thin flesh above. "That's a fuckin' rookie error, making a henge like that."

The 'chunin' didn't even exhale to help alleviate his stress. "It'd be a real damn shame if I've lived for so long only to be killed by such a cocky bitch-"

Suffice to say, Anko knew of the possible repercussions for killing a foreign ninja. Consequences such as money settling, treaty violations, war declarations… all blamed on an 'innocent mistake', a lie. Anko could see the possible future: hapless shinobi killed for getting lost when searching for a bathroom. Unlikely, of course, but who knew what went on in other ninjas' heads?

The only consequence she was worried over was the fact that she was going to bleed the ninja dry all over the clean, polished corridor. Puncturing the blood vessel, she then dragged her kunai along his throat just for good measure before releasing her hold on him. His blood ran rather slowly, yet it soon spilling from his neck to the floor. But the strangest thing was the fact that while the man's blood hit the floor, he himself never did…

The man stood, seemingly unaffected by his own blood loss; hell, he was so _calm_ that Anko was starting to think she tried to cut up a walking corpse. "What… the… fuck…?" The Mitarashi stared at the man, suddenly worrying whether or not she was in a genjutsu. Biting her lower lip, nothing changed save for the new taste of blood in her mouth.

"Well, I suppose that motor-mouth ninja's ability was good for something after all," the man commented to himself as he thought of the scythe-user. Soon enough, his bleeding stopped as his skin started to close together over the wound. "Since you're obviously done," he said even louder to the kunoichi, "I've got to get going. Sorry about the mess." Ito turned his back to her as if her presence warranted no threat and made as if he was about to leave.

Anko, as it so happened, was an opportunist.

" **Sen'ei Jashu**!" (Hidden Shadow Snake Hands)

Snakes in great number and size sprung from her sleeves. The serpents wrapped themselves around the man, constricting themselves around him, biting relentlessly whereas a select one crushed his throat. An instant later, there was a puff of smoke, revealing a substituted log. "Replacement?" Whilst pulling out a kunai with her free hand, she was about to withdraw her snakes, but all of them were promptly sliced clean off by shurikens that streaked in from her right. She was already about to face the direction, but in horrid (and ironic) twist of events, found herself in the same position that she had captured the ninja the first time; the difference was that she was the one with a kunai at her neck.

"Just couldn't let things be, hmm? You're young, I'm sure." The man's tone was as dry as Suna. "But you're a tokubetsu jounin, aren't you? Seems that your promotion must've been a favor from a higher-up, rather than earned."

Anko's teeth nearly grounded into powder at the gauche remark. She'd worked hard to get to where she was, despite her miserable odds. It was in doing so that she was already formulating a means to her escape while the man went on. "Too bad, but I expected no less from this village." Noticing a strange mark barely concealed by her high-collar, he looked down and noticed that it was no mere blemish from birth, not even an ordinary tattoo. Ito's eyes widened when he saw that the young woman was wearing a successful imprint of Orochimaru's cursed seal. "When did Orochimaru give you that mark?"

Hardly had he finished was when her kunai (held in a reverse-grip) was lunging behind her, aiming for his vitals as best she could. Ostensibly forgetting his own freakish regenerative abilities, he released her and leaped backwards, and deflected the kunai that she then threw, aiming for his heart. "Fuck off."

"It's only a harmless question-"

"Who are you?!" Anko growled as more snakes grew from the reaches of her sleeves.

"Answer mine first." Ito's tone became lighter as if he was making a joke. "Answer mine and I'll tell you."

Anko's response was to remit her snakes explosively at the man, hoping to entangle him. Before the man could comment on how she was a 'one-trick-pony', a much larger snake rose out of the ground from just behind him, aiming at his back. Wind seemingly encircled him, and the man disappeared in a burst of speed. As he moved, the wind rushed to replace the vacuum he left behind. In his wake of blurry attacks, all of the snakes exploded in crimson gore, sliced off and diced like vegetable stalks. _We'll continue this talk later,_ the wind seemingly whispered, before the airstream itself was gone. At what sounded like a threat, the woman's eyebrows furrowed in apprehension, before becoming worried.

"Who the hell was that?"

She didn't know. But what worried her more was the nature and reasons of his presence. Just to look at some random genins on their closed-circuit televisions fight it out? To fight her? Anko had no idea, no grounds, no leads.

Wait…

The chunin hopefuls-… they weren't that random. He was watching the fight of Maito Gai's team, some Iwa ninjas, the Ino-Shika-Cho team, and Kurenai's team. Kurenai's team… she was teaching a problematic student, wasn't she?. What the hell was his name again? She said his name earlier; what was it? She racked her brain before finally coming upon the answer. "Uzumaki." That kid was kinda special in her eyes, not because he was on her friend's team, but because he was the village's pariah. Well, besides _her_ , that is. It had to be about the brat, due to the fact that she herself had asked who he had been watching on the screen. He had answered in the confirmatory immediately, before going on to say that the boy's fights were interesting. Anyone else's fight could be 'interesting', more exciting even. Obviously, Uzumaki was on watch by someone-

"Aww, shit!" Anko cursed to herself. "God _damn_ it! I can't even describe this guy! He's got nothing that stands out! I might as well just say that he had two eyes, a nose, and mouth!" She turned as if to head back inside the building that stood on the outskirts of the F.o.D. (Forest of Death), but came to a sudden stop when she realized that his earlier bloodletting was still there on the ground in the doorway.

If he were a leaf Ninja, he could be easily identified by his blood if he was on the register like most other ninjas who gave blood samples for records. Blood could tell many things about people, anyway, so even if that was a bust, they could still learn where he came from, what kind of environment he frequented, and so on. Hell, even she herself could do the same things of the sort, albeit on a lesser scale. Nonetheless, they could at the very least learn which village and region he hailed from.

With a tiny grin on her face, she bounded inside, hoping to get some sterile equipment with which to collect a sample.

She liked her line of work.

 **=X=X=**

The three leaf genins sped along by leaps and bounds via the large branches of the forest. None spoke as the foremost individual's aura only served to make the others tense, even more so than the nerve-racking nature of the exam. He himself did not recognize this, as most of his mental faculties were focused on finding the (Dobe) Uzumaki. The boy could very well recall the thrashing he got from the powerful shinobi in Suna; his choice of clothing, his weapons, his mannerisms… it could be no coincidence. His sharingan wavered and flickered with the fluctuation of his emotions, revealing two tomoes in each of his eyes.

Naruto had to know the shinobi, or at very least, know _of_ him. Name, perhaps. Maybe even his general whereabouts and his haunts.

The sudden thought came to him that he might be over-thinking matters. Just because someone now could dress and behave like a kage meant that they knew the person personally. It might even have been some sort of common knowledge somewhere, and Naruto picked it up, simply because of a passing fancy. Sounded very Naruto-ish, behaving on whims.

Nonetheless, the dobe had to know something that could be useful. Besides, these were the chunin exams. It would be a terrific opportunity to do some team crushing. Crushing Naruto's team, if he had to be honest with himself. He could (grudgingly) admit that he'd grown stronger and worthy of his attention. He'd followed up on Naruto's exploits, and most of what Kabuto had told him and his generation came as little surprise. Naruto wasn't a weakling, not anymore. Not to mention, he had a dojutsu.

That settled it. He was, more or less, going to kick Naruto's head in just to gauge the blond's strength, his abilities, judge the battle-worthiness of their dojutsus and any information Naruto could cough up from a bloodied mouth would be a bonus. Also, given the rulings about the exam, his actions would be perfectly legal. Here, his current line of thoughts came to a stop as the tracker-seal in his hand felt as if it were on fire, although it mattered little. He spied the Oddseal, laying in the bushes a little ways off. Although he took note that it was rather large, he couldn't prevent his smirk from growing into a grin. One step at a time, then a bound, he was soon off even faster than before, giving his two teammates a little trouble in keeping up.

Both of them could sense the Uchiha's temper was cooling, allowing for they themselves to calm down. They made no comment, lest they accidentally set him off again. By now, even Sakura was willing to admit that his temperament was getting too much to handle. Her personal attachment to him hadn't decreased, (she still entertained the idea that she could 'change' him'), but his conduct was starting to affect the team's morale and efficiency.

The wind in the trees started to pick up, boughs unsettling and leaves rustling. In spite of this, Akamaru finally wised up to the presence of their followers. (Read: Tails) He growled lowly, only communicating with his partner via his bred language. Hardly had the dog finished his report was his master's eyes wide, before narrowing in misgiving. He waited patiently, drawing deep breaths on the wind blowing around them, studying the scents carefully. "Three, huh?" He mumbled. Glancing aside, he was about to warn his cohorts, but things started to happen all of a sudden.

…

Her ears twitched. The slight wind kept blowing towards her, fanning her face lightly. This was good; this particular factor assured her that the Inuzuka up ahead wasn't about to catch the scent of her team quite just yet. Yet, the wind carried something to her, or perhaps it was only her imagination. It was a rather outlandish feeling, but she'd felt it before, particularly when Naruto and his clones (brothers?) had aided her against her uncle when he was trying to kill them for interfering. It was the same feeling, and nearly as strong. It was a sensation that warranted nothing good. 'This is bad. Who knows what he might do to Naruto-kun? Maybe I should just stop following Sasuke and find Naruto-kun to warn him instead. Naruto-kun's better suited to handle him, isn't he?'

"This is kinda tedious. They're just heading in one direction. North. We should just blow past them and get to the scroll first. We've got to be close enough, right? The seal is starting to feel like it's trying to cook my crotch."

Fu shook her head. "Nope. Haven't you realized? We've been meandering to the left. The seal isn't _North_ from here. It's gonna land somewhere between North-North-West and North-West."

"Since we know that much, that's more than enough info to tell where to use the tracking seal," Shiri said excitedly. "Besides, we should just take them out now before they become a problem later." His eyes squinted into a glare. "Or is that too much of a problem?"

Fu snorted in contempt. "What's your problem with me, huh? Kami, it's like you both woke up one day and decided to hate me-"

"I don't hate you," Ana corrected as he checked his pouch, readying himself for a fight. "I just don't like you." To this, Fu exhaled a puff of hair upwards at her bangs. However, her hair didn't stop moving on its own; rather, it kept on, bringing her to notice the fact that the wind was picking up. Ana saw the jinchuriki become a little fussier, and he cocked up an eyebrow. "Feh, it's not shocking 'cause this isn't exactly news. What, with you housing a demon and all. Not exactly high up on my list of favorite supernatural beings-"

"We should ease back," Fu suggested, disregarding everything that the teen had said completely. "The wind's getting wilder. We don't want the dog-guy to smell us. I know that they're almost out of sight, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

"Well, what about that dog next to him?" Shiri mumbled, eyeing the animal carefully. "Isn't it going to be a problem?"

"Dog?" Fu looked out while they trailed Team Seven, finally taking notice of the pup that traveled alongside them. Seeing this, she realized that their intents could already have been compromised. "Crap. Let's follow them on the ground, instead of through the trees. It'll make it harder for him to smell us-"

"Bullshit," Shiri interjected rudely. "We'll lose sight of them way too easy, especially with all this foliage. We should stay on their level."

"Nuh-uh, we should get to the ground." Seeing them repay her proposition with frowns, she realized that she wasn't going to get anywhere. Shaking her head with abandon, she realized that, like it or not, the assholes in front of her were her best shot at getting to be chunin. Sure, they were biased, hated her guts and ostracized her for the burden she bore, but they were all she had. Furthermore, they could be useful for something right? Furthermore, she wasn't entirely sure she could take on the Leaf team ahead of her. If worst came to worst, they could serve as a distraction if the need presented itself.

"So are you gonna fight, or are you going to be a dead weight?"

Rather than take the affront for what it was, she ignored it; her scowl lessened the more and more she thought of the pros. "Fine. Let's take them out." 'Besides, if we smash their kneecaps or something of the sort, at least I won't have to worry about any Village-friendly attacks on Naruto-kun from them. Well, not in the exams, anyway,' she added in her mind. 'Then I can warn him later.' "Okay. I'll fight. Who am I going to fight? The pink-haired girl?"

"Perfect." Hardly had the word been said before her two teammates raced ahead, before flanking to the sides in order to enclose the Leaf team. Fu took a longer route and let herself fall down a branch or two before landing roughly on the ground, running as quickly through the undergrowth as she could so that she could attack from beneath. Keeping her confidence in reins, she hesitated for the blink of an eye before she made her move.

…

Sasuke deftly swung out a kunai from his thigh holster and deflected the shurikens aimed at his neck. He wasn't even done with the process before he noticed Kiba get caught in a flying tackle, and Sakura suddenly having her feet snatched from below by the ankles mid-stride. Suffice to say, both of his teammates were taken out of his proximity as suddenly as his own attack, and one of the enemy nins kept throwing shurikens and kunais at him from afar, keeping him occupied. It was obvious that it was what he was trying to do; moving in plain sight and flashily removing his throwing weapons to engage in bukijutsu. His actions made it clear.

'Hmph. He's just trying to keep me from trying to go help him, huh. If Kiba and Sakura can't handle themselves, then that's their problem. Let this idiot throw a whole country's worth of weapons if he has to, they're never going to hit me.' Grasping his kunai in his left hand, he pulled out three shurikens of his own, he stopped running to get to the Oddseal before dashing forward at the Taki ninja still throwing his projectiles. Post deflecting more and more of the weapons with his kunai, Sasuke threw his shurikens, making them curve sharply around the trees. He then slighted towards his left before throwing his kunai.

Caught flatfooted, the ninja boggled when he realized that he was being sandwiched between the thrown weapons. In a split-second decision, he stepped off the branch he was on and fell below, barely avoiding the edged armaments when they collided together where he used to be. Grinning to himself as he looked down at the Taki ninja, Sasuke went through the handseals for one of his favored techniques.

" **Katon: Gokakyu** **no jutsu**!" A new heat swelled up in his chest as he did his intake, before blowing a large continuous flame at the hapless nin. Still in midair, Ana thought he was done for as the fire rushed down to meet him. Thinking a quick prayer and muttering a curse, the teen shut his eyes but nothing, save for a hair atop his head, felt the sear of the jutsu.

" **Suiton: Mizu kasukēdo!"** (Water Release: Water Cascade)

Opening his eyes in disbelief, he saw one… two… no, _several_ Fu's before him, all spewing water at the incoming blaze in an effort to counter it. Her (or _their_ ), attempts were barely successful, and steam rose up and billowed, enveloping the area. One of the girls, apparently the real one, grabbed at a massive tree bough while they were still freefalling, and wrenched it completely from the trunk. Wielding the branch (that was at least five times her size in both width and length), she hurled it at the Uchiha, hoping that it'd catch him off-guard in the already-dissipating steam. It was checked; Sasuke leaped aside, barely hiding his surprise at seeing the girl handle the massive branch so handily.

Evidently, her teammate was also now bearing witness for the first time.

"Hooooly _**shit**_!" Ana landed ungracefully, as did most of Fu's clones; the impact jarred them into dispersing. Only two remained stalwart charging back to finish what she had started with Sakura, while she herself remained at her teammate's side. Glancing at him, she spoke without turning her head.

"Are you alright?"

"Fine, thanks-" He let the appreciative word slip, momentarily forgetting who he was thanking. True to his character, though, he retorted in his usual mannerism. "Whatever. I had that under control."

"Is that so? Death by fire? There are less painful ways of killing yourself, you retard. Besides, if you really are done with living," Fu smirked as she thought of a jibe. "You can off yourself after this round. We still need a full team to pass this. When that's no longer the case, I'll get you a nice, _long_ rope."

Ana snorted. "As if. Now, where was I? Oh yeah…" He formed the ram handseal and flared his chakra, activating the seals he had wrapped around his kunais. They were all wrapped around the kunai on the reverse side, hiding the fact that they were exploding tags instead of bandage grips. "Eat B-Grade!" As he foretold, mid-level paper bombs started going off from all of the deflected kunais that had hitched themselves haphazardly in Sasuke's proximity. Six in number, Ana thought them to be enough for one genin; leastwise, he hoped so. He knew that he was just trying to save face, but to be honest, the paper bomb trick was his best gaff against unsuspecting foes.

Shockwaves from the explosion caught up to the Taki nins, knocking them back a step. Noticing this key facet, he believed that he'd been worried over nothing since the sharingan-user had to be done for. However, after sensing movement, he chanced a look to his right, a mere three feet away, only to stare Uchiha Sasuke dead in the eyes. Black tomoes spun menacingly; Ana fell to prone, completely unconscious. This grabbed Fu's attention and was about to charge the raven-haired boy, but had to stop in her tracks. Her awareness had somewhat diminished, but she was still mostly successful in dodging a few shurikens that came streaking in from some undergrowth to keep her away, as one of which only nicked her cheek.

She ignored the pain that the weapon had left behind, trying to gather her bearings. She was about to yell for her final teammate, only to hear his shrieks of pain, cursing about a 'broken arm'. It dawned on the Taki kunoichi that their enemies were overall stronger than her team, no matter if she was a jinchuriki or not. Not unless she could fight them all by herself, as she was sure that the shurikens that were thrown at her a moment before came from a concealed Sakura. Her water clones must've been done in; ten percent of her strength (in the clones) was apparently less than what the pinkette could handle, or she'd had help in dealing with them.

Quickly coming to the conclusion that Shiri must've incurred a serious injury from the second male on the Leaf team and Ana was unconscious, versus the fact that all of the Leaf team was intact, she had a few decisions. She could either try her damndest to crush the team (by herself) and secure a somewhat pyrrhic victory, or cut her losses and bail out with her teammates. 'Or without them,' she consciously thought; it was _very tempting_. 'I can still reduce the gravity seal that Naruto-kun gave me to train with. I bet I can outrun Sasuke with Ana and Shiri under my arms since I'm strong enough.'

Fast and strong with the brothers, faster and stronger _without_ them. The appeal of the temptation grew.

A new question formed as she regarded the Uchiha who'd jumped back up to the trees, looking down. 'Well, what about Sasuke over there? He's just standing around, staring at me. Is he scared of me? Or trying to lure me closer to him so I can spring a trap or something?"

This wasn't the case; Sasuke suddenly began flying through several handseals, ending on 'tiger'. Seeing his intake of breath once more, she grabbed up her limp teammate and began running away as quickly as she could to get out of harm's way. This time, however, instead of an expected inferno of a constant fire stream, it was the opposite. Fireballs, albeit far smaller, came spewing after her in great number. Briefly glancing behind, orange eyes widened at the sight of the fireballs seemingly following her in drifts. "Holy crap, holy crap, HOLY CRAP!" She dodged around some of the trees but soon came to realize that it made little sense. Even if the trees took the damage for her instead, she'd soon have a forest fire on her hands. Sasuke didn't even stop. He announced his jutsu to help with his focus, before going through the handseals again to perform the self-same technique again, and again.

" **Katon: Hōsenka no jutsu**!" (Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique)

The raging balls of fire came and went, always in her general area, yet mostly going wide whenever she dodged, despite the fact that she refused to escape too far lest she needed to return for her final teammate. Too late, she realized that the fires were starting to burn all the trees behind her, destroying her possibilities for a safe retreat. The fires blazed; the conflagration was penning her in a perfect 'U', with the only clear path being where Sasuke was.

Obviously, he wanted to fight her.

She rested Ana on the ground before trying to shake the teen awake. All attempts failed before she realized that he must've been in a genjutsu-induced slumber. Fu groaned in exasperation. Things were growing from bad to worse. She thought of using one of her few water techniques, but they weren't powerful enough to quell such an inferno, and her usage of water clones would be a bust unless she produced them from chakra-made water. Furthermore, if she even considered putting Ana down so that she could fight the enemy (AND if they left him alone), the fire could still burn and catch up to where he was, burning and killing him in his vulnerable state. Time was short.

She'd lost sight. Why was she here? Why was she doing this? Why was she fighting? Regardless of how strong Naruto was, he couldn't protect himself from all fronts, much less in his own village. Someone could slip him something in his food, stick a kunai in his side while he walked in a crowd, stifle him in his sleep. He wasn't perfect, as anyone could make a mistake in trusting the wrong person, or to commune with a killer. It was really simple. She was putting the Uchiha down before he put Naruto-kun in the ground. Really simple. If nothing else, degrading Sasuke's health ( perhaps by breaking a limb or two) so that he couldn't try anything really underhanded in the exams. But was she really thinking of Naruto in such a weak light? She wasn't of the notion that he was weak. She was doing this because she cared for him, not because she felt that she was repaying a favor or obligation. She was doing this because that's what people do when they cared for their significant other, no more, no less. There was nothing wrong with that. With a self-affirming nod, she got to work.

Ducking down behind a bush quickly, she put down her teammate and set about digging a trench just deep enough for the boy to rest in. It was horrifying slow by just using her hands; grabbing a nearby tree, she wrenched off a broad piece of the firm bark and used it like a shovel, making sure to remain out of sight. Working quickly, she had the project done in under a minute, and dropped the unconscious youth inside the dugout. Now, she had less of a liability, and it gave her more confidence. Her throat began to go dry as smoke inhalation started to bother her, even without her distance from the flames. Feeling a sense of urgency, she charged out of the bushes and leaped up into the higher branches of the trees, yelling as she did so. Her brasher nature returned by the time she was near enough to the Uchiha on the large branch; his sharingan intimidation mattered little. She had no delusions of fighting him with taijutsu, but a little help went a long way.

As Sasuke expected, the kunoichi pulled at another large tree bough and broke it off, swinging it like an oversized club. Dipping under a wild swing, he rushed forward, sharingan analyzing her actions. It was laughable to him; she moved horrifyingly slow to him, almost to the point that the sharingan was unnecessary. He never thought he'd see it in a kunoichi-… all brawn with no brains. No skills, either; that is, besides the strength. Sakura was an exception-…not _much_ , but she at _least_ had a little of both. In his eyes, anyway.

Fu watched as he ducked under her horizontal swing, and rather than stop short, she herself spun in a complete circle to use her momentum, hurling the bough at the advancing Uchiha with extreme speed. As she did, her brain kept racing on a one-track. 'One punch. One good punch is all I need…!' As expected, he cleanly jumped over the low flung tree-limb towards her, and she cocked back her right fist to meet him, fully intent on leaving an imprint of her fist in his chest.

Three kunais cut through the air and found her, embedding themselves into her flesh with sickening thuds. Two scored her upper arm and shoulder, and the last rooted itself in her thigh. All of a sudden, blood welled up and her dominant side was now her weaker one. Sasuke retracted his earlier plans of doing a feint and settled for decking the girl in the lower with a dizzying hook. Knocked backwards in a stumble, Fu tried to collect herself as her vision doubled. Her brain rocked around in her skull, nearly driving her to the point of unconsciousness.

"What the hell, Sakura…?! She's mine." Sasuke admonished as he kept his eyes on his adversary. "Stay out of this."

The pinkette revealed herself from where she had kept herself hidden. "But Sasuke-"

"But nothing." Sasuke sighed deeply as he watched the fires beginning to rage out of control. "Doesn't matter anyway. She wasn't worth my time." He was a bit disappointed, as he'd wanted a challenge in the hopes that she'd had a special aptitude for battle. He was about to turn to leave, but he noticed that the mint-haired kunoichi was steadying herself; he could hear her fingers and knuckles pop when she tightened her fists. "Hmm?"

"I… ain't done yet," Fu mumbled as she finally got her double-vision to merge once more. "C'mon…" Keeping in mind that she'd lose more blood if she pulled out the kunais, she yanked them out anyway amid pained grunts, hoping that her inner demon would heal her before she lost too much. Dropping the kunais to the ground far below, she pulled the last one from her leg and held it tightly, settling into her stance. It wasn't much of one, but it had to do. Sasuke snorted, completely disinterested.

"You can't even stand straight enough."

It was fairly true, although she was milking that detail a bit, only not too much for it to be obvious. Let them underestimate her. She was about to answer, but the third of their team showed up with his dog at his side. "Whoa? Who's this one?" Kiba looked over the girl once, noting that she was already starting to appear battle-worn. "Who's she fighting? Sakura?"

"She's fighting Sasuke," the girl replied, only to be corrected by said Uchiha.

"Hn. She's fighting no one. Let's go get the seal." He turned his back, and the nature of his actions only served to make Fu furious. She had heaps of social issues which circled around the fact that she was the jinchuriki of her village. He was disregarding her. _Ignoring_ her. It was petty of her to feel this way, and yet, one did not simply outgrow problems that they've had to deal with their entire lives. She snarled nastily, whilst hatching plans to _smash_ Sasuke in the face. Beating him would've been enough. Now, it was personal.

"She's straightening up. It looks like she could fight some more," Kiba observed. "She wants to."

"You don't always get what you want. Now let's get that seal before other teams start showing up." Scarcely had he finished saying this when Fu threw the kunai as hard as she could, aiming right at his head. Years of training in bukijutsu on his own told him that a weapon had been thrown, and he ducked; the heavy knife flew right through the space his head had previously inhabited and hitched itself into the tree all the way in 'till it was completely buried in the hard trunk. The second that they all focused on the feat, she darted forward towards the team at the end of the branch, closing the distance from her end to theirs. It was a bit sluggish getting there, (purposefully), allowing just enough time for her insects to exit from her companion sack and hide behind her as she ran. She had no methods of fighting, no plans. It was an idea, hell, more of a _goal_ to be exact, and the details would have to be touch-and-go.

She was soon amongst Team seven, swinging rowdy fists at both Sakura and Kiba in the hopes that they _wouldn't_ leap away. They didn't and merely settled for dodging her attacks by merely trying to counter her. Before Sasuke could warn them about her strength, Fu's insects revealed themselves to achieve their hostess's wishes. Making themselves useful as the vermin they were, they flew into the duo's faces, biting, stinging and leeching chakra at a rate that would impress even an Aburame, some of which actually went on to knock out Akamaru by eating away at what little chakra the dog had in its coils.

Kiba and Sakura yelled as they tried to back off, clawing at their faces in an effort to be rid of the pests, but to no avail. Capitalizing on her chance, she shunted the pinkette with a shoulder-ram directly into her chest, knocking her off the tree by a great distance. Blood flew from Haruno's lips, the crimson hitting the ground below long after she had, out cold. Uncomprehending of what had happened to Sakura, Kiba was the next to suffer as Fu kicked at his shin with the arch of her foot. Pain shot through her own limb, but not on the scale of Kiba's as a distinct cracking was heard over the sound of his screams. She knew it was a clean fracture, but she wasn't done. Drawing her arm back, she pushed forward and slammed the butt of her palm into his stomach with a forceful shove, sending him flying like a human projectile at Sasuke.

Sasuke didn't catch his teammate; to his credit, however, he softened the blow by standing behind the Innuzuka, lest he got knocked into the tree. Too late to help (save?), his teammates, his sharingan blazed once more in order to knock the girl unconscious with a genjutsu as he had done to her teammate. Kakashi had taught him how to how to employ his utility; he was sure that he had performed it properly, but the girl didn't succumb to it, warding it off. She rushed him again, and Sasuke was forced to drop Kiba to defend himself. Engaging the Taki kunoichi in a bout of taijutsu, it was clear that he was her superior; none of her hits ever reached their mark, and her head, neck, and chest were paying the price for it. She was too unruly in her roughshod style of fighting, and he was too agile, careful and methodical.

Losing his patience, Sasuke pulled out a kunai, intent on finishing the girl off, but she grabbed his knife-hand, crimping his wrist until she broke it thoroughly. He didn't reward her with the shrieks he wanted to hear, and he tried to rabbit-punch her in her jawline in an effort to let go. It scored, and pain exploded in her face, double-vision reoccurring and making her lose her tracking of his straight-punches. She didn't relinquish her grip on his hand, and he repeated his efforts, once more, twice more, thrice more. All the while, Fu felt like she was going to pass out... and simply _refused_ to. "Son of a _**bitch**_!" She screamed between clenched teeth as she finally caught his free arm by the fist while it was about to connect with her face for the fifth time. Just before he could kick her in the groin, she pulled him forward and headbutted him on his nose, stifling his yells of pain to a squealing grunt. With newfound advantage, she pursued it by crushing his closed fist inside of her palm, effectively rendering his second hand useless as well. Finally, he dropped his kunai from his handicapped right hand, and she released her grip on his wrist as well, grabbing his upper arm instead. Stepping forward to clip her left leg behind his right one, she then placed her free palm on his chest. The Uchiha's sharingan eyes widened as he realized what she was about to do, fear blossoming in him.

"You're _**DONE**_!"

Tripping him, she then pushed him down with extreme force, smashing him down into the thick and inert tree branch, so much so that they broke clean through. His back was wrecked and chest cavity inundated into itself, dented in from the ample pressure from her hand. His sharingan eyes rolled up to reds and he coughed up blood uncontrollably from damaged innards.

"Aggghh!"

All, -Fu, Sasuke and Kiba and his dog-, went down below along with the branch and into the dust cloud below that kicked up when the tree limb gouged the ground. Only one walked out of the nucleus of the maelstrom, coughing as she did, trying to clear her passageways of all the dust she'd inhaled. Her exertions finally caught up with her, and found it increasingly difficult to keep upright on her shaking legs. Seeing the wrath of the chakra-made forest fire burning ever closer, eating its way through the trees to reach her, she had a sense of panic when she realized that she was caring less… and less… and less…

She finally slumped forward onto the ground, deciding to rest herself a bit, let her eyes close for a little longer than a blink. Just for a moment.

Just for a moment.

 **=X=X=**

"I feel stronger with it. Y'know? I feel stronger with it in my hands. Sure, my arms feel like they're going turning into noodles, but I feel _stronger_."

"I'm afraid I don't understand," Shino replied as pushed his shades farther up his face. "Perhaps you're using the wrong _word_ to describe it."

"Vitality, maybe? My life. My life feels… I feel healthier. No, not like that, either. I feel like I can live _longer._ Yeah, that's it."

Hinata looked at her crush unsurely, eyeing his wounds. They weren't necessarily injuries anymore since they've closed up on account of his inner demon's influence. Of course, they've been in a couple more scrapes, but none on the level of the encounter with Teams 9 and 10. Nonetheless, the Uzumaki had surely lost more than an acceptable amount of blood, _and_ incurred injuries like broken bones, particularly his ribs. She worried for him over this particular factor. Broken limbs were far more tolerable than broken ribs in terms of complications, more so by fighting. The Hyuuga had already made it known to him about her concerns about this, but he'd shrugged it off, mentioning that 'Kurama' would soon take care of it. He'd kept active, fighting every now and again, ignoring the possibilities of organ puncturing and widening of rib fractures unnecessarily. He didn't want to keep still. He wanted to keep moving, keep going.

Typical Naruto.

Silently activating her Byakugan, she returned her attention to him, noting how his body's functions and overall health was. While it was significantly better than his state right after the fight with Lee, two of his ribs still hadn't fully healed, particularly his fourth rib that seemed to curve inwards a little too much…

"Naruto-kun, we need to stop to rest!" Hinata said hastily, trying to avert a probable misfortune. "Your ribs-!"

"Yeah, they're healing. It's not as if Kurama has anything else to do or anywhere else to be, so he has to patch me up." Naruto paused here as if listening to some input from his inner demon. "Uh-huh. He just said that my fourth rib is a work in progress. It's why you're acting up, right? Trust me, I'm fine."

"It could puncture your lung!"

The Uzumaki exhaled noisily in humdrum. "If I had a ryo every time I got one of my lungs punctured…" He thought on this for a bit, hemming and hawing, "well, I wouldn't be rich, but I guess I'd have about seven ryo. Funny. Thought I'd have a bit more."

The Hyuuga stared at him in a mixture of mild astonishment and annoyance. "This isn't the time for jokes, Naruto-kun. If anything, you can rest for even a half-hour so that you can at least catch your breath-" She didn't even get to finish as she was again interrupted.

"A **half** - **hour**?!" Naruto looked at the girl as if she'd lost her mind. "That long? Hinata-chan, in case you didn't remember, there are only _**ten**_ of these things in the exams." He gestured with a nod to the massive seal he carried across his chest in a sort of bridal carry. It was the least awkward way of carrying it, and to allow him to see where he was hopping through the trees. "Only ten of them. And the 'Anko' lady said that there were one hundred and eight _teams_ in the exams. Remember the people after this seal the first time? Six teams. Who's to say that there aren't another _eighteen_ people after this one right _**now**_? If we keep moving instead of staying still, we throw off their attempts to find it _and_ us with their tracking seals."

"Well, let me carry it!" Hinata insisted. "So that at least it won't depress your ribs anymore!"

There was a long silence after this, save for their suppressed sounds of movement through the trees. The Hyuuga was starting to think that she'd finally gotten through to him, until Shino came to assist, but not in her favor. "Hinata, with all due respect, I don't think you can cope with the weight and cumbersome nature of the seal. You know that I tried to lift it earlier and to be perfectly frank, I don't believe Anko even intended for anyone to even _walk_ with the seal, let alone run with it. For all we know, that seal could be giving some sort of neurosis or fake belief that he's stronger with it. Why, you ask? That seal's purpose is to compel everyone to want to stay still and be sitting ducks. In fact, even I'm impressed that Naruto has been carrying it for so long."

"Training," Naruto replied vaguely, "and I vote to keep moving." Nonetheless, Hinata got the hint. They were going to continue, that is, unless she did something drastic. The thoughts of knocking her crush out did occur to mind, she'd admit, but she willingly forfeited it for another (less-drastic) idea.

She stopped tree-hopping, and allowed herself to fall to the ground below, standing still when she landed. Naruto came to a halt as well and gawked at the girl. "Hinata-chan, **what** are you _doing_?"

Shino observed his usually socially diminutive teammate. "I believe she's 'putting her foot down'. Why, you ask? So that you'll also have to stop, as the team would be short a member."

"Stop? We don't even have shelter! That's crazy!" Naruto hissed. "I'm not doing that!"

…

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Naruto grumbled as Hinata passed a bento box to him. After thanking her for the food, he continued his objections whilst looking around. "Shino, keep your hands on that seal. I swear, I don't think we're even going to sleep properly, knowing that everybody has a way of finding us because of that thing. Keep that seal chakra-timer running, 'cause we might have to cut our losses soon and leave it behind."

"It's not going to disappear, Naruto. But your paranoia is noted." Shino rolled the seal over to Hinata like an upright barrel before he sat against a tree. "I'll sleep now and watch later." Before Naruto could disagree, the Aburame was already sleeping, although it was hard to tell due to the fact that his shades were still on.

"Well, he's gone," Naruto said in a deadpan as he sweat-dropped. "And Hinata-chan, I can't believe you made us stop. Besides, you know that my clones can't even carry that thing, simply because it's draining their chakra and making them act screwy. Are you sure you can handle that thing? It sucks chakra like a parasite."

"What's important is that the person who's supposed to carry it will get some rest." Her tone, while retaining its demure nature, had an uncharacteristic edge to it. Resting her hand on the scroll, she allowed it to begin slowly imbibing her chakra, distinctively getting the notion that a timer had begun, recording. "Naruto-kun, you can't keep pushing yourself like this. Just because you have certain talents, or have a lot of chakra or the Kyuubi itself to heal your injuries doesn't mean that you're invincible."

"Don't I know it. Rock Lee nearly killed me with his bare hands," the boy solemnly agreed. "But I can pull the weight. I have to."

"Shino-san and I can pull our own weights," her tone grew more serious. "We also have our own skill-set that contributes to the team's dynamic. You're not the whole team, Naruto-kun."

"I never said that. It's just…" Naruto hesitated. "It still kinda feels like the early days when I found out I was going to be on Kurenai-sensei's team. It made me feel like Kami just loved making me miserable. To be honest, I believed that I was miles ahead of everyone else, and sometimes, I still do. Lee's kinda humbled me to that, I guess."

"Unbelievable."

"I know, right, he's that strong-"

"I'm talking about _you_."

Naruto raised his eyebrow and gave his most sensible response. "Huh?"

"In the past, you were… how to put this gently…" Hinata trailed off. "Rough around the edges?"

"I was a failure," the boy said severely. "What's your point?" He poked around at in his bento and ate some of the food inside. "Wow. This is…" He struggled to find a compliment that was also true. "This food is… _edible_. Kinda…"

Hinata frowned. "My cooking's that horrible…?" Naruto shook his head wryly as he thought of Haku's cooking, and actually felt he was missing it. (He had to go without it for another _five days_?!)

"Nope. It's just that I'm used to… a bit better?" Seeing the kunoichi cross her arms, he admitted the truth. "Okay. I'm used to a _whole_ lot better." Knowing that he was speaking with Haku culinary skills in mind, she conceded the matter.

"All right. But we're getting off topic. It's just I used to see you trying your hardest to train because you were failing. I always knew you were strong and that you'd succeed, but… now," Hinata searched for the proper wording. "Now that you're at this point where you think you're strong enough to beat any and everyone without much effort. I know that you're powerful, and you've done amazing things. The Training Ground 4 explosion, fighting the Iwa jounin in Kimyō Town and saving it from being demolished and fighting the Nukenin and Mist Anbu in Wave Country. Now, you've become lackadaisical. You're coasting by now, without using effort. I don't even see you train anymore."

"I'm always training!" Naruto protested. It's just that I'm not really training with you or Shino, 'cause I'm always working with exploding clones." He fixed his hitai ate as a sort of salute, becoming more somber. "Lee was just a taijutsu monster, and I couldn't go all out against him because he's a fellow Leaf ninja. But don't worry. I aim to work harder."

"What if he wasn't going all out either? You-" Hinata stopped herself and took note of his headband. He was always wearing it and always give the impression that he was secretive of what lay underneath. Of course, she had made attempts to look by using her dojutsu, but that didn't work; obviously, the secret was only skin-deep. It reminded her of the incident in the hotel where his brothers (she was entertaining doubts that were actually the case) when they nearly killed she, Tenten, Haku, Shino and their Anbu guard because of a 'misunderstanding.' Before in the past when Naruto had been training in the bitter early days of Team 8, he'd claimed that his head had been hurting him and upon his return, had begun to exercise unnatural reflexes. Additionally, when Naruto had been placed on suspension, he only removed his headband _after_ putting on his hood, another certain factor which indicated that he had something to hide. Something profound. "Um… Naruto-kun?"

"Uh-huh?" The lad waited expectantly. "If you really want to, you can train with me in the future and vice-versa, okay? Problem solved-"

"Is the reason why you've gotten stronger because of whatever you're hiding under your hitai ate? And the other boys who you say are your adopted 'brothers'. They know what's there, don't they? Can I know too?"

Naruto sucked in air sharply between his teeth. "I don't even know how to respond to that. You see, um… it's this horrible scar…" He looked at her nervously, hoping she'd buy it. One look at her face, however, told him that she didn't.

"Naruto-kun… you're a terrible liar," the girl said at last, her curiosity still un-sated. "I can keep a secret."

"Yeah. Me too."

Hinata sighed deeply; stubbornness had always been one of his strong suits, although it was a pity he had to exercise it now. "Fine. I suppose that if you don't want to tell me, I'll let it go." It spoke volumes of acceptance, yet Naruto kept on his guard, lest it was an attempt at reverse psychology. "Nonetheless, you should have more confidence in us. Shino and I aren't just placeholders. We're teammates, and we each have our parts. We've improved, haven't we?"

"You have," Naruto said readily. "And I aim to improve too." 'I have to. I HAVE TO! He's coming for my abilities… and the only way I'll find out their purpose, my heritage, about what happened to my parents… is if I make him squeal.' His face darkened as his future seemed to grow concentric-…generally dark around the edges with a tiny, nigh insignificant beam light in the center akin to a long tunnel. 'He cannot take that which is not his!' He took notice of Hinata's demeanor and realized that it'd changed little. Something had still gone unresolved, and it was her fault; she didn't quite express what she wanted to say. 'Hmm…' "I think I know what's got you so upset. You liked me better when I was a failure with a 'never say die' attitude."

He'd hit the nail right on the head.

"T-that's not true-" Flummoxed, she tried to defend herself, but he allowed her no leeway.

"That's it, isn't it?" He made his trademark (foxy) grin and gave a 'V for Victory' sign. "I'm gonna be Hokage, dattebayo!" His flash-in-the-pan mockery of his own past outlook only served to upset her and rile the overall mood, but he did have the presence of mind to stop. "You know what the sad part of it was, Hinata-chan? I was a depressed, scruffy orphan kid who wanted attention. I'll never say 'die', sure, but those were some dark times." He ran his hand through his cropped hair, feeling his disposition plummet. "I bet that even other villages knew more about Konoha's state than you did. The worst recession in... probably _ever_. After the Kyuubi's attack, the Sandaime focused mainly on upkeep and repairs on the village by using the treasury, and less on taking on clients for ninja work. People hated me even more during these times." Memories refused to fade; they remained in front of his mind's eye almost as staunch as if they'd happened a moment before. He felt a sting in his eyes but he suppressed it. Not now. Never again.

Hinata knew that the faux pas was his own, but she rose to the topic, in favor of the delicate one from before. "Why? It wasn't your fault…?"

He shook his head. "Nah. It's one of the reasons why they tried to double their efforts to finish me off for good. But the ninjas were spread too thin after the village was finally rebuilt; ninjas were gone nearly all the time to make up for the hole in the treasury, so I didn't really have any guards. I did have a… benefactor," the word sounded strange to him, "who'd give a gift to me, or two. Maybe I had a secret admirer, but the initials were always I.U." He refused to tell her anything more on this particular subject. "But besides that, it's why the villagers nearly got lucky twice to put me in the ground. Of course, you wouldn't know about this. You were shielded. Nice home. Byakugan-toting guards. I bet that if you even took a stroll with them, they'd see me hundreds of meters and steer clear of me so you'd never see how I was. Maybe they even kept you completely out of the seedier parts of the village."

"You're making this sound as if this is my fault-"

"You were ignorant." Naruto interrupted. "And you had no idea you were, and no reason to want to remedy that. I don't, and I _can't_ hold that as your fault. But it's the reason why the Hidden Leaf is weak. After everything was finally rebuilt and the hurt, maimed and overworked ninjas came home, it was clear that the village needed some beefing up. Low on manpower because of mission gauntlets, and occurrences of breeding highly skilled ninjas were rarer than seeing happy days. So here's the kicker: the Hokage turned over the process of rearing new ninjas to the council, just so that he could fully manage the treasury, full-fledged ninjas and even taking missions from time to time, just to help out too. By the time everything had gotten better and started looking up…" With anger, he recalled when the Hokage had denied to help him with clone techniques, "They _continued_ to churn out ninjas as quickly as possible, whether they had the right skill level or not. So here we are, a bunch of talentless children, hailed to be the next generation of Leaf Ninjas. We didn't have a damn clue that we were just a heightened statistic."

Hinata's eyes widened. "Military safety in numbers…"

Naruto nodded. "Right. Just a show to the outside that we were still a major Hidden Village, 'cause we had to keep face. And it didn't matter who was a clan heir… or _heiress_ ," he said the last with emphasis, "simply because we're all basically fodder shinobi. In all honesty, Sasuke might've been at a 'normal' skill level of a civilian ninja back before the Kyuubi attack. I don't really know where they got all this _prodigy_ nonsense from. I've read about who would be a prodigy… the Yondaime, Itachi Uchiha, Kakashi Hatake, even Orochimaru. But the fact of the matter is… maybe a certain someone who was a mediocre ninja was being motivated by a failure's efforts." He tried his best not to sound condescending, but he remained forthright. The truth had to be said. "And unconsciously derived feelings of affection from it." After this, he studied Hinata carefully, feeling her out for any signs of emotional regression. Surprisingly, he found none. "Look, I'm sorry if I'm being a tool about this…"

"No. You haven't, Naruto-kun." The girl smiled as if he'd just praised her. "The truth is… I liked you _before_ that. I can't say that you're not right though." The smile fell as her eyebrows furrowed, looking down in growing dejection. "Maybe you inspiring me was just a catalyst for my previous feelings to grow. Maybe what I wanted was to only be friends."

Her tone had grown decidedly gloomy. He briefly wondered if he'd gone much too far, but what he'd said had been mostly out of annoyance. It had been building up ever since day _one-…_ she was _weak_. Everyone in the class was. It was a horrid truth, and he'd long accepted that his statistic belonged in their number, even now. Dredged feelings still lingered from his earlier days of Team 8, emotes that pushed him to want to create the Tenacious Thirteen. They were supposed to help him train by transferring their memories, weren't they? Learning all aspects of shinobi combat, utilities and even medicines, particularly from the Scroll of Sealing that he'd stole and memorized from the 'Mizuki incident'. Perhaps it was long overdue that they should've been forfeited to give him their knowledge. Sure, he was afraid of another backlash (which might actually kill him this time, since they had their own battle-experience and abilities, in _addition_ to some of the library knowledge they had also gained,) that he needed what they had. He could sense that things were coming to a head soon, and a _genin_ without ninjutsu had nearly completely outclassed him.

Hinata being peeved about his disposition and lack of team ethics were the last things he needed.

"Maybe what I wanted was to only be friends," Hinata mumbled as she thought about what could be likened to a wake-up call, "but I still can't see myself with anyone else. Won't you still try? I want _us_ , Naruto-kun," the girl pleaded. "I really do."

The boy was caught off guard. He hadn't thought about their budding relationship and how it might've suffered because of what he'd said. And then there were the other girls to think of. Fostering Haku. Brash Tenten. Sweet Fu. Sure, thanks to his learning about a few things, knew that they all had growing feelings for him, but to be perfectly blunt, his life was a whole lot less complicated when he was a dunce. To get ahead of himself, didn't they all deserve a chance too if they wanted to garner intimate relationships with him? Didn't he 'like-like' the other girls too, as much as he did for Hinata? Why tell Hinata 'yes'? Give her time to sort both her emotions and herself out before moving on? Why not?

"Sure," he agreed at last. A simple answer for a problematical plea. While grateful for the affirmative, Hinata could see the abandon in his ceruleans and began to ponder when was the last time she'd seen his fire. On the receiving wind, she got the impression of sadness, futility and a small hope, all bound together with the tinge of woodsmoke.

She felt the same. And somehow, she knew that he too was no different.

* * *

 **Well, sorry it took so long to post this. Yep, I'm following the broad plot timeline of canon but obviously I'm not writing the same script. What Fu did was** _ **real.**_ **I wonder if Sasuke's still alive? Hmm…**

 **And now for a few chapter notes:**

 **-Smart people (Read: Naruto) occasionally stick their foot in their mouths.  
-Hinata's feelings (may be) derived from admiration. Blame ol' Kishi for producing love on a factor that's so trivial. Damn, if that were the case, we'd all be marrying our role models. Yikes.  
-Hinata can't cook. I went against an unspoken Naruto-fanfiction rule.  
-Anko got to slash a man's throat from ear-to-ear. (Yay…?)  
-Like the Oddball in Halo©, the OddSeal (falsely) gives one the impression that they're stronger. Just because you can bludgeon someone to death with a single melee strike doesn't mean that a guy can't paint the wall behind you with your brains from afar.  
-Financial recession in the Shinobi World is real. Just like silly old Hokages. And silly decisions. And silly councils. And dumb _-ass_ rules. And an overpowered villain to fight an overpowered genin.  
-Naruto explained my theories on why the generation after the Kyuubi attack was weak. I think it's fairly plausible.  
-I don't bash characters. Unless you take that literally. If you do, then yes; Sasuke might become a vegetable, Kiba may be told that he'll never walk again and Sakura's chest cavity basically got liquidated(?). That is, if they're not dead** **. Fu's like a green-haired** _ **Supergirl**_ **, I swear.**

 **That's that, I reckon.**

 **Valete omnes,**

 **MRAY 4TW.**


End file.
